Anthony is standing in front of a small group of people. They are gathering in a church outside Waterloo in Sierra Leone. A metal suitcase is placed on a table, and he has successfully connected all the cables and his phone to a small monitor. He welcomes everyone and begins to talk passionately about TheWell. He speaks fast and in Krio. Most of the people have brought their own phones and are following his instructions, so they can connect to TheWell and get access to the prestored media and training resources. An elderly man is struggling with his phone and is asking for assistance. A few minutes later, he is connected, and the smile on his face reveals the genuine joy of getting access. He tells me that he has already gone through the training once with a trained facilitator. But when he heard about TheWell, he wanted to get access to the audio/visual resources, so they could help him better understand the training materials. He explained how the training he received was so intense, that it was difficult for him to digest everything, but with TheWell he is now able to take home parts of the training resources, so he can watch them again and again to get the full benefit.

According to International Orality Network (https://orality.net) roughly 80% of the world’s population are preferred oral learners, and may not understand the message if it is delivered by literary means. Some are completely illiterate, functional illiterate or visually impaired. But the vast majority belong to an oral culture. They can be highly literate, but they just prefer to learn in an oral manner. The number of preferred oral learners will probably grow in the years to come, as we begin to realize the importance of delivering knowledge in different formats and not just as printed letters in a book. Today digital resources can bridge the gap between the different ways people learn. It is not important how we learn, but it is important what we learn, and the skills we acquire. It is far more important and effective to adjust our approach to training to match the audience, rather than forcing the audience into a format which is strange to them.

TheWell Systems is designed to serve the many who prefer to learn through audio/visual means. But it is also designed to tackle another major global challenge. I was struck by the numbers revealed in a recent UN report. More than 3 billion people or 1/3 of the world’s population has never been online. This is not just because internet is not available. In most cases it is because internet is not affordable for ordinary people. It is important for all people to have access to information and learning. But there are many who cannot afford to pay for data bundles, so they can stream or download media resources. This gives them a huge learning disadvantage. There is a defined internet poverty index (https://internetpoverty.io). In 2022 almost 1,4 billion people were living in internet poverty. Even though TheWell does not grant people access to internet, it still gives them access to resources they would otherwise have to stream or download while online. TheWell only needs an occasional connection to get new materials stored. Then it can serve numerous mobile devices and save people a lot of money.

We will launch our beta-testing of TheWell Systems in July 2023. We are currently in the process of shortlisting organisations, who will help us with the initial testing and give us necessary feedback, so we can adjust the product. This is an important first step, before we are ready to scale up. We want to help people like Anthony to better deliver training in his community and bring transformation into the lives of the people he serves.

Please join us as we pray for the many, who are serving tirelessly every single day to deliver training in the churches all over the world. Pray that we may find good ways to use modern technology to help people learn in a format and language they understand. Pray for TheWell Systems and especially for our software developers, as we prepare for our beta-testing.

You can find more details about TheWell Systems on our dedicated website: https:www.thewell.systems

God Bless!