19/07/2001 for Iconnect http://www.iconnect-online.org/

Telecentres are seen as a means of providing affordable access to the Internet for the poor. But what would the poor do with access to the Internet? Community consultation exercises recently carried out by Youth Alive in Soweto, South Africa, and Armonia in Mexico City, tried to gain an understanding of what young people really need. Both of these partners have worked in areas of acute need and high risk over a long time, and have excellent links with young people through work which includes youth clubs (with activities covering a broad range of life issues, such as HIV/AIDS) and micro-enterprise development.

Although some young people in Soweto had used the Internet, the only location they could remember was the Britney Spears web site. When questioned further, they recognised that Britney would not be much help in solving their problems! Both consultations came up with similar priority needs:

• Employment – awareness of opportunities and training
• Education – equal opportunity for education In Mexico, however, the high proportion of migrant workers gave rise to a further need:
• Communication – frequent cost-effective contact with dispersed family.

The consultations were part of the initial phase of a DFID funded project by Big World and Gamos to develop an innovative approach to the design of telecentres. In response to these needs, telecentres will include library resources, learning programmes, careers advice, and a design studio. The telecentres will be content- rather than technology-led, with a focus on publishing local content, and will contribute to ongoing, local projects. Consequently both telecentres in Soweto and Mexico City are being set up not so much to provide global access, but to provide locally relevant content.

For further information: http://www.gamos.org/