IEET is sending an initial shipment of 25 cellphones to Madagascar as part of it’s African Futures Project, to elevate daily life there via techno-progress.

The cellphones will be sent to farmers in the southern area of Madagascar, on the Mahalfaly Plateau. Cell phone service was recently expanded there, and farmers are eager to use the devices to connect with family members, to learn about food markets in the city of Tulear, and to communicate with each other about the problem of regional cattle thievery.

The cellphones will be distributed by a new IEET writer, Dustin Eirdosh, who lives in the region.

Future cellphones that IEET receives might be sent to another IEET contributor, Jonathon Dotse, who resides in Ghana.  He would distribute them to urban poor in Accra.

The usefulness of cellphones in Africa is explained in the essay, We Can Hear You Now! - 12 Ways Cell Phones Accelerate Africa