Founded in 1995 by Rodrigo Baggio, the Center for Digital Inclusion or CDI has helped thousands of people improve their lives and shape their communities through greater access to computers and increased knowledge of IT, and the improvements in education, communication and social development that these resources can bring.
Describing themselves as pioneers of the ‘digital inclusion movement’, CDI are now a major global NGO, with a network of ‘Digital Inclusion Site’s’ throughout Latin America, and with several other sites in Europe and elsewhere. These sites take the form of schools of IT and related skills, and are situated both in low-income areas and within indigenous communities, as well as in clinics, hospitals and youth and adult detention facilities.
From its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, CDI maintains its global operations with the support of other major benevolent organisations and plans to expand its reach towards the Middle East, North Africa and India in the future.
The concept of Digital Inclusion
As information technology and communication (ICT) becomes increasingly an integral part of modern day life, the familiarity that people have with computers and their understanding of the internet and communicating online will inevitably have a greater bearing on the opportunities that are made available to them. For the majority of the worlds marginalised communities, particularly in the developing world, readily available access to the essentials of survival and life itself – a safe water supply, enough to eat, shelter from persecution, are the first priority. However, as these countries develop and find greater stability, and increasingly technology plays a greater part in their economic growth, an understanding and appreciation of ICT will become increasingly important; in other words, their level of digital inclusion. Inevitably people’s knowledge of ICT will have a bearing on social mobility and inclusion for all but the most isolated communities, providing greater employment opportunities, and enhancing the ability for individuals and the communities in which they live to communicate with the world beyond their boundaries and make themselves heard.
CDI: their projects
Largely based in Latin America, the schools and centres that CDI have set are up are based in the most vulnerable regions and communities, from the slums of Brazil’s cities to disparate indigenous communities in Columbia. Their ethos is to provide people not only with the equipment, but the know-how and appreciation to exploit the skills they develop and improve their lives in the modern world. They explain this with great clarity in their website:
‘…But technology, in itself, is just a tool. The true challenge is making technology relevant and useful in the context of marginalized populations. For 18 years CDI has empowered disadvantaged groups to use Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) as tools to exercise their full capacities as citizens and tackle the issues that affect their communities…’
One of the organisation’s flagship projects that has been running for over ten years is based in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Classrooms and computer labs have been set up, providing the local communities with invaluable training and experience not readily available to them from other sources, in an environment that is better known for the severe poverty and drug violence that was endemic in favela communities in the past. The centres aim to provide assistance and education of a sustainable nature, opening up greater opportunities for employment and self-sufficiency to the communities involved.
Sarah Lacy’s article from 2010 in the Tech Crunch website provides a vivid and interesting account of the project: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/12/coming-up-from-the-favelas-brazils-slumdog-entrepreneurs/
For more information on the work of CDI, visit their website at: http://cdiglobal.org/
Benjamin Smith 