Regional overview
The few examples of projects that are included in this synthesis deal with the use of ICT for reaching orphans, underprivileged children, the deaf and visually impaired, students with learning disabilities and the disadvantaged students in Australia, India and Malaysia.
ICT for orphans and underprivileged children
The Cybercare project in Malaysia is aimed at forming an electronic community by connecting orphanages, Home administrators, the private and public sectors and NGOs. Their mission is to empower underprivileged children and the Homes through the use of ICTs to improve their quality of life. Funding has enabled the orphans and Home staff to be trained in computer applications with assistance from volunteers. Programmes already initiated are Young to Care (Y2Care), to nurture leaders among the children, and e-Mentoring which allows volunteers to electronically guide, coach and counsel a child. The Putting Orphanages Online (POOL) programme has linked 33 homes and currently benefits over 1600 children, with 600 of them already trained in computer usage. The completion of the project has seen both tangible and intangible benefits for the orphans. Besides ICT skills, the orphans have also gained self-confidence, personal acceptance and social skills.
ICT for the deaf and visually impaired
In a similar vein, the e-Pek@k project, also in Malaysia, facilitates the usage of ICTs to benefit the deaf and hard of hearing, carried out by three NGOs and six special schools for the deaf. These projects have resulted in many of the deaf recipients learning to build and maintaining their own websites.
ICTs are also being used to reach the visually impaired. An Indian project entitled, “Software to Educate the Visually Impaired “ is accelerating the learning process of more than 300 visually impaired children by making ICTs available to them. Covering 10 schools in Andhra Pradesh, the project uses the same curricula as taught in regular schools, using multimedia computers, JAWS software which converts a normal PC into a talking computer, open book OCR reading software and a brailed printer for providing course materials. Students are also given access to printed computer manuals and books.
Disadvantaged youth
To reach the disadvantaged youth in India, IBM provides free ICT, working with Bhavan Vidya Bhavan (BVB) through the Gandhi Institute of Computer Education and Information Technology (GICEIT). This project brings elementary computer literacy to participants from rural India, giving practical, vocational training such as in e-mailing, word processing, designing spreadsheets, business graphics and other related business applications. Local language interfaces have been devised using specialised software to make the learning experience more meaningful. More than 3,000 students in 15 schools have already benefited from the programme.