Build Your Own Hello Hub

A “How To” Guide, with instructions for building a Hello Hub

We want to end the digital divide and give everyone access to the Internet.

To achieve this aim, we have created the ultimate How To Build a Hello Hub Guide, so that any community can build a Hello Hub themselves.

We meant it when we said scalable. Hello Hubs can now be replicated all over the world!

We have been building Hello Hubs for ten years, in Nigeria, Uganda and Nepal. We have made mistakes and have learned from them. We know how to build in difficult conditions and we have continued to listen, refine and improve our community and building process.

This guide gives you all of the information you need to build a Hello Hub. You will be guided through every step of the way with video tutorials, engineering diagrams, kit and price lists, pictures and careful descriptions.

Here’s what’s in store in the How To Guide...

Community Instructions

A Hub will not be successful if the community does not invest in and build their own Hub. We teach you how to encourage ownership, pride and inclusivity into the Hub from day one.

Engineering Instructions

A detailed kit list with costs, electrical tutorials, and clear instructions for every step of the Hub construction, as well as invaluable tips from our engineers. In 2021, the materials of a Hub in Uganda cost £6600.

Advice

Our team members explain the process to you, from engaging an Internet service provider to designing safeguarding protocols. We also provide answers to frequently asked questions such as: how to increase women’s involvement in the build, and how to protect the Hub.

Resources

We have included a full list of all software that we use on our tablets, the MoUs that we sign with our communities, job descriptions, project handbooks, and much more.

Support for NGOs

Our approach is not traditional. When we build, we work in partnership with a community. We offer guidance on how this works in practice and how to make your work as respectful and effective as possible. We are delighted to share with you our groundbreaking work and look forward to welcoming you to the Hello World community.

Register now

We would love to know who is building Hello Hubs, and where. For this reason, we ask you to register to use this guide so that we know who is using it and so that we can continue to learn from, and support, each other. Please fill in the registration form. A donation is requested from those organisations able to afford it.

Consultations Available

If you would like to talk to one of our team about whether the guide would be useful to your community, we would be happy to support you. To talk to one of the team for a small consultation fee please fill in a registration form so we can send you costs and put you in contact with the right person.

Some Success Stories

Teachers in Nepal

Teachers in Nepal use their Hub tablets to keep records of their students. They are then able to send this information to local government, which helps with planning for new school infrastructure and provision for students. Done this way, it’s more efficient than the old paper copies and allows them to follow students progress and attendance year round.

Learning in Lockdown, Uganda

Rose from Tooro High in Fort Portal, Uganda, built the Hub with her school mates in March 2020. Whilst schools were closed during the COVID lockdowns, she had to look after her little brother. She’d take him to the Hub so that he could play whilst she studies using the tablets. Now she’s back at school, she told us that she doesn’t feel behind because she was learning on the tablets through lockdown.

Hub Hero, Maureen

As part of the Hub Heroes women’s groups, the women chose to learn bakery skills. One woman from the group who had some experience taught the rest of the mothers skills in baking and decorating cakes for sale. Hub Hero Maureen is selling her queen cakes at the Hub today as a result of what she learnt in that class.

Cooking Groups and More

Users at one hub have set up cooking groups where the hub is reserved for people to come and learn new recipes that they will make and sell. The Hub has also set up similar groups for hairdressing, tailoring, and needle work as well as children’s groups and even puts time aside for the local girl’s football team to gather and watch highlights and matches.

Ronitah, The Writer

Ronitah is an avid writer. She likes to write novels about girls who have adventures. When she started coming to the Hub she didn’t know how to type. Slowly she taught herelf on the notes pages of the tablets before starting to use Word processor. Now she is writing her novels on Word and is able to save them, so that they won’t be lost.

Web Development Classes with Bob Martin Karugaba

Groups start up around the Hubs to teach and train others in the community. One such example is Bob Martin Karugaba, who runs web development classes at his local Hub, where he teaches general computer dexterity and coding twice a week. Helping the people in his community upskill and better understand the digital world.

Promoting Awareness of HIV in Kibimba

Editor built a Hub with her community in Kibimba. Before the Hub, she was working to promote awareness of HIV in her community. She’d even started up a Facebook group for sufferers for them to share their stories. But with expensive data costs, she couldn’t make the group as active as she would’ve liked. Since having access to the free Hub Wi-Fi, her group has grown and more women with HIV have access to Editor’s support and advice.

Maths Games with Susma at the Sanghoko Hub

Susma used the Sanghoko Hub about once a week. She’s 11 and has been using the Hub since it was built. She helps other children to use the tablets but her favourite thing to do at the Hubs is play Maths games. She says that her parents use the Hub sometimes too, but that all of the kids are better at using it than them. She wants to be a teacher.

Researching Antimalarial Treatments

Patient, a Congolese refugee, used the Hub to research antimalarial treatments after watching his friends repeatedly fall sick with malaria in the settlement. He learnt how to make an anti-mosquito spray using local products. He emailed other producers in Kampala to get advice and organised meetings with them about legalities and safety precautions. He’s now found a sponsor who’ll work with him to produce these products more widely.