Empowering ethically through IT
Vision and Mission
Our Vision
"Underprivileged peoples switched-on to the benefits of computing and the Internet."
Switched-On has two meanings:
- Knowing how to make the technology work to the beneficiaries' best advantage (Switched-on has the connotation smart).
- People and equipment set up, energised and functioning.
What are the benefits?
Access to education - both acquiring computer literacy and also using computers & Internet to access educational resources. Equips to find better jobs and to improve the local community.
Our Mission
Providing IT alone without understanding the local context or ongoing support will lead to disuse or miss-use. Computers can "break" if not supported properly, there are dangers from involvement in the World "Wild" Web and beneficiaries need to take ownership for ongoing benefits.
So how do we plan to achieve these benefits?
- Building relationships with organisations in developing nations whom we seek to help.
- Encouraging beneficiaries to resource some of the project.
- Developing an IT approach that beneficiaries can administer simply.
- Providing back up support through visits and ongoing remote support.
- Utilising free Open Source software, which will dramatically reduce costs.
- Training in IT skills.
- Understanding how IT fits into the particular local cultures through partnership and investigation.
- Teaching beneficiaries how to do research using the Internet - a resource where not all information is easy to find and is often biased.
- Positively encouraging the ethical use of computers and the Internet, from a Christian perspective.