Michigan State University and the Eastern Seaboard Association of Tertiary Institutions created a series of partnerships between community-based organizations (CBOs) and six higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal, thereby helping those universities and technikons establish a strategic plan and program for community outreach to nearby disadvantaged communities.

By working to make the Internet available to the participating communities, the partnership also helped area CBOs become better advocates for their constituents. The partnership developed a portal web site to address the needs of all six communities and features services and resources available from the six tertiary institutions to tackle priority topics selected by the KwaZulu Natal CBO Networking Forum: food and hunger, health, microenterprise and jobs development, educational access, environment and sustainability, women’s rights and affairs, and youth issues. With the first online community web sites, the partnership developed a model for communities to learn from the partnership and one another by accessing development information and sharing assets.