Brasília - By the end of next year, three million Brazilians who live in places rated low on the Index of Human Development (IHD) will have access to computers, internet, and basic training courses in the informatics field. The goal of the Brazilian Program of Digital Inclusion is to install a thousand telecenters throughout the country in 2005, each one capable of serving 2.5 thousand to 3 thousand people. Each telecenter will be provided six computers linked together in a network, with instructors on hand to give informatics classes, in addition to various cultural and scientific activities intended for the community.
There are currently at least 300 telecenters in operation around the country, 108 of them in São Paulo alone. The federal government's idea is for the telecenters to congregate activities developed by various federal government Ministries and agencies. "The telecenters will not only make access to the internet available. The idea is to have a model that involves the community, so that it can choose the activities," explained Sérgio Amadeu, President of the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI), tied to the Presidential Civilian Advisory Staff.
Amadeu believes that the digital inclusion program will make sure that the government attains its goal of installing six thousand telecenters around the country by the end of 2007 - as projected in the Pluriannual Investment Plan (PPA). If this target is met, by the end of this period 18 million low-income Brazilians will be able to obtain technical training in the field of informatics and permanent access to the internet.
Amadeu recalls successful examples of telecenters in communities that received this benefit. A group of young people in Lajeado (SP), for example, began producing a monthly newspaper for the community. And residents of the Santa Lúcia neighborhood in the city of São Paulo organized a dance contest among users of the telecenter, thus removing a large portion of young people from the streets. "President Lula's government will use information technology to enhance Brazilians' capacity to improve their living conditions, to communicate with one another, and will take advanced technology to poor areas so that it can serve as a tool to overcome the conditions that maintain the population in poverty," he emphasized.
The Brazilian government also hopes to be able to use free software programs, permitting the utilization of computer programs without the need to pay royalties to the manufacturers. "If we use free software, we shall save millions of reais and dollars. Free software also makes it possible for a group of trained young people to have access to program codes and thus advance their training even more," he pointed out.
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Gabriela Guerreiro
Translator: David Silberstein
08/06/2004
