World Renew leaders and Zambia partner staff attended a 10-day event in March 2023 that was held by the NGO Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the Salvation Army’s International Social Justice Commission Building in New York City. The staff and leadership were invited to introduce a new cell phone application that was created by a locally-based software developer in Malawi, led by World Renew’s Southern Africa Team Leader Steve Sywulka.
On March 14, Hellen Muma, a staff member from the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), a World Renew partner in southern Africa, demonstrated the web-based content management system, called Talmids, at the UN’s CSW event. The app helps our partners and community members improve their lives and work by providing access to practical training in community-based development topics as well as direct reporting on field visits from our partners.
How Talmids Supports Community Development
“There are several goals for the Talmids app,” Sywulka explained. “First, we want to empower people in remote communities to end poverty and hunger, and equip them to teach others using downloadable content that can be accessed anywhere. Then, we want to increase transparency between World Renew, our partners, and participants to transform more communities sustainably.”
Sywulka also said that while the software application is in development and testing, it will contain 250 activity-based, animated lessons on agriculture, maternal and child health, household financial management, ending gender-based violence, and disaster preparation. So far, the lessons are available in seven languages in text and audio modes so that local facilitators can train small groups of literate and non-reading participants in their neighborhoods.
Expanding Access to Training and Technology
“The reporting feature of Talmids gives partner staff and community volunteers access to adaptive project management by enabling real-time collection, analysis, and tracking of data to measure the progress of programs,” Sywulka said. “Users can rate the training features, send feedback, give quizzes, report their training activities, and send stories and photos back to their partner office and World Renew.”
Besides directly reporting volunteer and community activities right on their phones, partner staff can use the app to manage their work by creating surveys and assigning tasks to volunteers in remote locations.
Community priorities can be added to track trends and shape village planning as well as inform future World Renew program funding.
“I’m hopeful that we will soon have this technology in the hands of women and girls who will use it to become even stronger leaders in their communities,” said World Renew USA Executive Director Carol Bremer-Bennett while attending the UN CSW’s 67th annual meeting in New York in March.
See the Talmids App in Action
Watch how women in Malawi are using the Talmids app to strengthen their skills, support their communities, and create lasting change.
As World Renew continues to test and expand this technology, there are many ways to stay connected and support this work. Learn more about our community development programs, sign up for our e-news to hear regular updates from around the world, and explore how you can get involved and be part of building stronger, more resilient communities.
