Solidarity Networks: Jangala and SOLE Colombia
In small rural communities across Colombia, between landscapes that are shaped by resilience and recovery, people are coming together to explore, connect, and learn in ways that are reshaping their lives. These remarkable communities are the foundation of a partnership that’s creating pathways for peace, empowerment, and self-discovery.
This is the story of how Jangala and SOLE Colombia are bringing the entire world to some of the most remote places.
SOLE Colombia: Sparking Curiosity and Connection
SOLE Colombia, with its goal to inspire curiosity and collective learning, is on a mission to create “Self-Organized Learning Environments” in communities across Colombia. In these unique spaces—often small schoolhouses, libraries, or community centres—people gather to tackle Big Questions together. A SOLE session begins with a Big Question as a prompt inviting small groups to use the internet collaboratively to explore and answer it.
Through this process, participants gain essential digital skills, such as digital literacy and critical thinking, while reimagining traditional classroom roles and dynamics, specifically those of teachers and students. They engage with questions that are both globally relevant and personally meaningful—how can we build stronger communities? How do we adapt in a rapidly evolving digital world? Using the SOLE approach, people learn how to learn together, and discover answers to questions that matter to them.
“I feel that the SOLE experience will help me guide the youth and work together”
However, until recently, these communities faced a significant challenge: getting online.
For many remote areas in Colombia, especially in places still recovering from years of conflict, acquiring internet access is a challenge. In 2022, with the support of the Internet Society Foundation’s BOLT Grant and funding from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), SOLE Colombia partnered with Jangala to explore whether Jangala’s Big Box technology could serve as a sustainable, community-powered connectivity solution for remote rural communities in Colombia, many of which face challenges in accessing the internet due to ongoing recovery from years of conflict.
Enter: Big Box
Big Box delivers robust, easy-to-deploy internet access to challenging environments like remote schools and emergency learning spaces. Supporting different backhaul sources, including 4G, satellite, and fibre, it ensures stable connectivity anywhere. Additionally, Big Box provides efficient traffic management that allows for the distribution of internet resources fairly among users and enables safe browsing environments. In 2023, Jangala’s Big Box technology was installed in eight communities across Colombia, which enabled SOLE Colombia to implement two significant projects.
The first is SOLE + Weaving Lives and Hope (WLH): Bridging the Digital Divide and Building Power Skills for Life, focusing on equipping communities affected by conflict with essential digital and life skills to bridge the digital divide. This programme helps communities develop technological skills that support personal, family, and local development, while also highlighting mental health, social cohesion, economic empowerment, and peacebuilding efforts. Through this project, SOLE Ambassadors were trained in each community to manage the devices and internet-enabled sessions, encouraging local people to gather regularly, engage with Big Questions, and explore answers using the internet.
The second project, SOLE Lab + SOLE Voltaje: The Library of the Future and Guide to Connectivity Solutions, introduced two pilot initiatives. SOLE Lab serves as a “library of the future,” offering a dedicated space for collective internet-based learning, while SOLE Voltaje provides an open-source guide to connectivity solutions adaptable to various contexts.
“The device they left improves the internet a lot [...] we’re learning to use the computer [...] the device comes to be useful, and we can make the most of it in the community”
Jangala’s Technology and Potential
Big Box was deployed in Boca de Camarones, La Guajira, a Wayuu indigenous community, where it has been integrated into SOLE Voltaje as a model for potential connectivity solutions in other remote or underserved areas. This guide, featuring Jangala’s technology and expertise, is designed to help expand SOLE Labs across different regions and empower communities to create similar learning environments worldwide.
Big Box has proven to be an invaluable resource for SOLE Colombia, particularly in areas where traditional internet access is limited or unavailable. However, one of the main challenges remaining is inconsistent electricity access in many of these locations.
With Big Box V1, we are working to incorporate solar power as a reliable and sustainable energy solution. External solar panels will connect to Big Box V1, allowing it to operate independently of the local power grid and use renewable energy to keep the SOLE learning experience accessible, even in remote locations with inconsistent or no electricity access.
Through this partnership, Jangala and SOLE Colombia are making a significant impact by delivering access to resources, learning opportunities, and essential skills that empower entire communities. Together, we are building a network of solidarity, dedicated to creating spaces and tools for people to learn, explore, and tackle big questions that could change the world.