BEDOUIN COMMUNITY PAVES THE WAY FOR COMPUTER CENTERS IN JORDAN
The remote township of Safawi in the heart of Jordan's eastern
desert is the first Bedouin community in the Arab world .to surf the web, thanks
to a walk in information technology center set up to serve its 2000 inhabitants.
Launched in October, the center quickly filled with the excited whispers of school
children clustering around computers and typing away at the keyboards. The center
is part of a UNDP global initiative to integrate information technology into development
and bridge the gap between rich and poor, young and old, male and female created
by globalization and the information revolution.
Supported by the Ministry of Education, United Nations Volunteers and UNDP, the
Technology Access Community Center (TACC) in Safawi will provide training on basic
computer and internet skills. It will emphasize support for income generating
activities, as well as creating an internet literate population, particularly
among youth and women.
The pilot center in Safawi paves the way for the establishment of similar centers
in villages across Jordan with UNDP support, as requested by King Abdallah II.
The King, who has made equitable access to information technology a national priority,
presided over the opening ceremony of the TACC, along with UNDP's Resident Representative,
Costante Muzio. The TACC now has fourteen computer terminals for training and
web browsing. Despite the wide expanse of desert surrounding the community, Safawi
is serviced by power lines, and its youth have access to schooling, thus providing
the infrastructure and literacy rates needed to capitalize on the information
revolution.
The initiative aims to build the local capacity of the community by introducing
electronic commerce, distance learning and eventually access to government, when
Jordan's public sector introduces on line services. A Safawi farmer will now be
able to check the price of produce on the local market by browsing the web, and
schoolteachers will be able to access new teaching modules through the internet.
The TACC also targets young people, who comprise nearly half the population in
the eastern desert region, by offering distance learning through links with the
Ministry of Education and the government's national information system. The center
is staffed by two local recruits from United Nations Volunteers (UNV), including
a woman of Bedouin origin, to accommodate the practice of gender segregation in
the community and ensure women's participation in the initiative.