Projects::Information Technology for Social Change - 2006

This is a peoples' networking movement which believes .The digital / knowledge divide is centric to all divides in society and efforts to bring in social security are directed towards fighting against the same at all levels. In villages, efforts are made to create knowledgeable local leadership by addressing issues of local concern and problems faced by the masses using Information Technology. This leadership works on the open platform of knowledge networking to implement innovative and socially enterprising projects. During the first phase this concept was spread in 59 villages, with establishment of 14 IT centers, 350 local lead volunteers, and 40 technical experts spread all over the world. These achievements resulted into award of Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship by the Ashoka Foundation (US).

In second phase of the project which will be launched during 2006, plans are drawn to run 30 village centers for 100 villages around them to address problems such as food, water, employment, poverty, health, farming, and women empowerment and thereby facilitating integrated development. The team of young social entrepreneurs, software developers, management professionals, media personalities will work with village teams to evolve into a complete developmental model for the villages.

With the success of this project it will be possible to set a great example for years to come and to show that the gap of time and space is not going to deter us from working for the progress of our own poor and vulnerable people. The estimated one year cost of this project is $ 400,000.