This article appeared in the Nepali Times
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/august31-6-2001/computers.htm
The
palung story
A computer and a radio tower in
Makwanpur in Nepal get young people talking and planning—for their future, and
that of their village.
by Gaurab Raj Upadhaya
PALUNG, Makwanpur - IT this, IT that. It is even in
the UNDP’s latest Human Development Report. There has been endless debate the
world over recently about democratising access to information technology, but
few examples are given of development agencies figuring out where they stand on
the issue—and trying to make it work. We followed one such story in Nepal.
Palung is in Makwanpur district, near Daman, about a
five-hour drive south- east of Kathmandu. It is an ordinary sort of small town.
And yet something in it stands out—its four-year-old audio tower. The Community
Communication Program (CCP) has been operating the tower as well as a
communication centre for the Village Development Committee (VDC) since 1997.
Mandate for the Future (MTF), a global Internet youth
forum, wanted to make information technology accessible to young people across
the world—including in Nepal—to empower them by helping them understand the
world and times they live in. Mandate for the Future, together with Worldview
International Foundation, decided to set up communication centres including
Internet access across the country, two in Nawalparasi, one in Dang, one in
Dhulikhel, and another in Palung. For Palung, they found an ideal partner in
CCP, and began the program here last November.
What makes the project interesting is that technology
is used as a tool—the community decides to what end—and not simply an end in
itself. First, youths from different neighbourhoods, were picked to act as
leaders and initiate discussion on what access to computers and the Internet
would mean to them. Realising that they could decide the project’s agenda, says
one youth leader, is why they all got interested in the project in the first
place. "We were not asked to do things," he said, "but instead asked what we
wanted to do." Later, they wrote stories about how they understand the village and
its people. These stories will soon be put on the web
(www.mandatethefuture.org), and read by other young people across the world
leading, the project hopes, to better opportunities for networking and
collaboration.
Eventually, they started figuring out what work was needed in their area and
tried to fine tune their own suggestions with information on the subject they
found online. Anyone in the area can use the computer, and at any time. It is
also a great alternative to expensive long-distance telephone calls, and the
CCP has also decided to install a printer.
Participants agree overwhelmingly that more than anything else the project has
given them a sense of the value of communication within their own community.
One young woman said this was the first time she realised that she could
discuss matters that affected the quality of her life with older people, and
that they would listen.