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DIGITAL LINKS FEATURED IN WEST AFRICAN BUSINESS MAGAZINE, REUSSIR, HIGHLIGHTING IMPORTANCE OF 1 TEACHER – 1 LAPTOP PROGRAMME

To reduce the digital divide and integrate all Senegalese citizens into the global digital revolution, the social enterprise Digital Links proceeded, on the 16th of September at the hotel Terrou-Bi, to distribute the first shipment of laptops to local beneficiaries from the hands of the Executive Director, Mrs. Aissatou Sow. Digital Links took advantage of this opportunity to launch the 1 Teacher - 1 Laptop Programme, which will bring 3,000 low-cost laptops and notebooks for use in the education sector across Senegal with prices as low as 270,000 FCFA.

Mrs. Sow reiterated that Digital Links, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established in 2002 in London, UK, has defined as its core objective the reduction of the digital divide between developed and developing nations. As such, Digital Links works to facilitate access to cutting edge technologies for primary and secondary schools and universities, but also health centres and local NGOs in their efforts to fight global poverty through educational and economic development. At the same time, Digital Links has developed a sustainable approach whereby beneficiaries and end-users are expected to contribute to the development of their own opportunities. Over the years, Digital Links has seen that beneficiaries have attached more value and maximised the use of equipment and resources they have bought as part of a structured programme of intervention which includes training and learning resources than through equipment that has been distributed for free in an ad hoc fashion.

Through this model, the 1 Teacher – 1 Laptop programme aims to provide access to affordable new technologies for the education sector. According to Mr. Tidiane Seck, Director of the Ministry of ICT (Agence de l’Informatique de l’Etat- ADIE) the government intends to provide an exemption for import taxes and duties for Digital Links equipment in order to facilitate the deployment of this programme. For him, it is vitally important that this initiative, the only one of its kind, benefits from political support to ensure that it will reach those areas most in need. Mrs. Sow continued along the same vein to say that this initiative is part of a larger political desire to increase access to ICT for education, households, public and private enterprises, universities and other research based organisations in order to contribute to economic growth. This is why Digital Links intends, between now and the end of 2009, to deploy more than 25,00 laptops in order to encourage affordable wide-spread access to ICT across Africa, beginning in Senegal, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and Cameroon.

For a testimonial from a beneficiary, click here.
 

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