Limpopo's rural i-community
17 September 2003
Until a year ago, villagers in a Limpopo rural area had never seen a computer before. Now, both the old and young tick away on the keyboard and navigate their mice across the computer screen.
The villagers are members of the Mogalakwena Hewlett Packard i-community, who are being exposed to technology in a project initiated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development a year ago.
The project, a three-year partnership between Hewlett Packard, the provincial government and the Mogalakwena municipality in Mokopane, is one of only two i-communities in the world; the other is in Kuppam, India.
The project aims to turn Mogalakwena into a self-sustaining economic community by using technology to improve literacy, create jobs, raise incomes, and increase access to government, education, and healthcare services.
"At the end of the project's term, we want to ensure that every household has at least one person who can use the computer to
access information or better their lives," said Asma Hassim, the i-community's business and economics coordinator.
The computers are located in libraries, schools, community centres, municipal offices, clinics and traditional authority halls across the municipality. Lessons conducted daily for both adults and youngsters range from computer literacy to call centre training, computer repairs, business, and science and technology training.
In the past year, the i-community has trained more than 1 000 people, including municipal councillors and staff, traditional healers, health officials, students and members of the wider public.
Hassim said Limpopo was chosen as a pilot site for the project because it is a rural area with significant but undeveloped resources, has a strong commitment to community training and localised development, and shares borders with three countries: Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.
"The province is perfect because we get to see how the
project works in both rural and urban settings and, because of the diverse races, we are able to evaluate how each group responds," Hassim said.
She added that the project also contributes to speeding up government service delivery.
"If we want to install computers in a certain area and there is no electricity, the government has to act fast to connect the area," she explained, adding that it is hoped that the project will be expanded to other areas of the country next year.
Source: BuaNews
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