"Computers for Everyone!" Social Entrepreneur Rodrigo Baggio from Brazil

Every kid today is familiar with internet terms like chatting, surfing and blogs. Really every child? 79 percent of the people on the world are cut off technology which is taken for granted in the developed world.

Brazilian Rodrigo Baggio describes the situation as digital apartheid. While aid organisations in Brazil were concentrating on providing food and clothing to poor people, Baggio recognised another necessity: access to the internet and computer skills.
Many called him crazy when he set up his "Committee for the democratisation of information technology" in 1995. The organisation grew into what it is today; a multinational network with more than 800 computer schools in seven Latin American countries.

Global 3000 shows the effect the organisation is having in Baggio's home city Rio de Janeiro.
Today is Sunday and we're visiting Rodrigo Baggio and his son Filipe in their home. Filipe is a little shy in front of the camera, but at 9 years old he's a wizard when it comes to computers. The father Rodrigo states: "I'm confident about Filipe's future because he's surrounded by technology. He's growing up with the Internet and he's got a computer at school. In our free time we like doing different things together."
Like Filipe, Greicielen is 9 years old and has five siblings. The only screen in her crowded home is the flickering television. Her brothers are about to go to school but Greicielen is not going today; her teacher is busy doing something else, she tells us. Greicielen’s mother Joselina is a cleaner and single parent. She finds it reassuring that her daughter has a computer school to visit, and doesn't have to spend her days on the street. "I'm glad all my children like going to school and learn about computers. Some children don't like it - but my kids love school. I support that. My eldest daughter spent a long time going to computer class, now she's being taught a qualification. She's very good and I'm not worried about her."
Joselina's children don't know that the computer school they visit is Rodrigo's idea. The school is just one of over 700 schools of this type in Brazil. Rodrigo has a special relationship with this school at the foot of Providencia slum. It's one of the oldest and was founded 10 years ago. The children are explaining to Rodrigo what computers are useful for; you just have to make a few clicks and you have access to a world of information.
The children here don't only get training in computer skills; they're also taught how to broaden their minds and raise their self-esteem – all part of the schools' concept. There's also time for play, otherwise the kids would loose interest. One challenge the teachers have to cope is the failure of the state schools to sufficently educate Brazil's population; many of the children here cannot read or write. The hard work put in by the school's teachers has inspired Greicielen to become an educator herself one day.
Rodrigo, a man from a comfortable background, is aware the project's success depends on the teachers: it's important they share the same social circumstances as their pupils. Mario Chagas, one of the coordinators, is aware of the importance of his job: "These children live in a violent society that they deal with every day. But they don't know with who they can talk about these things. This school is an instrument to overcome that speechlessness." And Rodrigo Baggio adds: "Every couple of weeks we hear stories about people who have been motivated by our schools and who have moved on to other things. For example, there was one group of people who came together and cleaned up the river in their community. They founded an initiative and created a recycling system for garbage. That's proof that people can feel motivated to change things in their lives instead of descending into poverty and relying on help from the state or God."
In the juvenile prison on Rio de Janeiro's outskirts, the kids have maybe one chance left to succeed in life. Most of the boys here have committed robbery or dealt in illegal drugs. There's a computer class every day and today it's taught by Wanderson who's been teaching for a year. The boys respect him because he's one of their own. He began dealing drugs when he was just 12 years old. Many of his friends from that time are no longer alive today. Wanderson is 19 years old and is trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow – a difficult task. He says: "When new kids arrive here they often say to me: 'You've done time and now you're a teacher. How did you do it?' We talk a lot together and I tell them they have to pull themselves together and wake up. I believe that everyone has choices to make in life." The school allowed Wanderson to make the choice of becoming an educator.
We meet up again with Rodrigo in this house in the city centre. It's the heart of the computer schools project. C-D-I stands for Committee to Democratize Information Technology. Rodrigo is in his element, eager to drive his project forward and make it a success. He wants more donors so he can set up new regional offices that will go on to found new computer schools. "The model has been so designed that it constantly reproduces itself," the Social Entrepreneur explains. "Our vision is to access new regions such as the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa in order to function even more effectively. 79 percent of the population of our planet is prevented from accessing technical development. Only 1.4 billion people can go online. That situation has to change."
And just how difficult bridging the digital divide will be can be seen in Rio's streets where only a few hundred meters separate two very different worlds

Fonte: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4163161,00.html