[UgaBYTES] Fwd: [telecentreknowledge] RE: Fwd: Fast Company; Microsoft and Telecentre.org Providing Free Internet Access and ICTs To One Billion People By 2015

[Mwathi Francis]

 Article location:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1565525/microsoft-and-telecentreorg-providing-free-internet-access-and-icts-to-one-billion-people-by

Microsoft and Telecentre.org Providing Free Internet Access and ICTs To One
Billion People By 2015
By Alice Korngold <http://www.fastcompany.com/user/135043>

Incubated by *Microsoft* [1], Canada’s International Development Research
Centre (*IDRC* [2]), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (*
SDC* [3]) for the past five years as Telecentre.org, the new *Telecentre.org
* [4] Foundation will be launched on March 3 as an independent NGO. “With
200 organizational partners in 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America,
and Europe, we are facilitating the telecommunications movement in remote
rural communities around the world,” according to Basheerhamad Shadrach,
Ph.D. in a private interview with me yesterday. Shadrach, Senior Program
Officer at the organization, will become the CEO of the new Telecentre.org
Foundation on Wednesday.

Here’s the model: Telecentres are set up in remote rural areas, where people
from the community come to be trained by telecentre managers to use
information and communication technologies (ICTs)—computers, for the most
part—to gain valuable information, such as new and better practices for
farming and agriculture, thereby increasing their incomes. Additionally,
people use the internet to communicate with doctors for diagnoses of
glaucoma, cataracts, malaria, AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, and other medical
matters. Based on the patients’ needs, arrangements are made via nearby
clinics or hospitals for medications, surgery, and so on. The costs of the
medical care are actually covered by various charities and global
inter-development aid organizations.

There’s more: Telecentre managers, called “rural knowledge workers” are
trained at the *Telecentre.org Academy* [5], which is hosted in 14
universities around the world. The curriculum is already translated into 20
languages, and also localized and adapted based on community needs. The
telecentre managers not only staff the telecentres to promote skills
development among community members, but the managers themselves gain
opportunities to further advance themselves by moving on beyond their
telecentre management certificates, to diplomas, and then to MBAs in social
entrepreneurship.

Akhtar Badshah, Ph.D., Senior Director, *Microsoft Global Community Affairs,
* [6] explained to me why this NGO enterprise is the ideal partnership for
Microsoft. “Through this corporate-NGO-government partnership, we ensure
that every individual in the world who wants to can learn basic information
technology skills to achieve economic and/or social empowerment.” Badshah
says that he has “travelled around the world, meeting with people who use
telecentres in remote locations. One community of families I met live in
caves in Inner Mongolia; they used the internet to learn how to apply the
use of terraces, greenhouse farming, and drip irrigation to grow a greater
variety of plants and crops, thereby increasing their incomes, and making it
possible for their children to go to school (rather than having to farm).”
Badshah adds that the telecentres are available to all people including
children, women, seniors, and people who are disabled.

Badshah explained that for CSR, companies need to ask themselves, “what’s
the problem, and what’s the solution.” And then they need to figure out a
digestible and ultimately scalable goal, using the company’s expertise and
resources to help solve a problem. “Create a clear and measurable goal.”

Telecentre.org Foundation’s business plan is to train and deploy 1 million
managers to staff as many number of telecentres by the year 2015. Since each
telecentre reaches about 1,000 people, the enterprise would bring the
benefits of the Internet and ICTs to one billion people. They started in
2005, and so far, they are right on schedule.

Microsoft’s CSR model has all the hallmarks of excellence:

   - stating a clear mission: “to help people and businesses throughout the
   world realize their full potential;”
   - establishing a variety of* nonprofit partnerships* [7] with excellent
   organizations that provide the company with complementary expertise as well
   as access to local communities in the U.S. and worldwide;
   - providing expertise, ICT products and resources, and grants and
   contributions;
   - engaging and supporting its employees in volunteering; and
   - providing leadership from the top.

------------------------------

*Links:*
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
[2] http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-1-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
[3] http://www.sdc.admin.ch/
[4] http://www.telecentre.org/
[5] http://telecentrecommunity.ning.com/notes/Academy
[6]
http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/our-actions/in-the-community/
[7] http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/partnerships/

Karim A. Kasim
Telecentre.org Knowledge Sharing and Networking Project Manager-Middle
East and North Africa
Egypt ICT Trust Fund - (MCIT/UNDP Egypt)http://mogtamaa.telecentre.org/

Tel: (202)353 42179 (Ext 2179)
Fax: (202)353 41813
Mobile :(20)10 170 8474
Cairo, Egypt
Work: kkasim at mcit.gov.eg
Personal: karimkasim at gmail.com
Academic: kasim at aucegypt.edu,
www.ictfund.org.eg www.mcit.gov.egwww.undp.org.eg