September 28, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
A nonprofit organization in Nepal has received the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2006 Access to Learning Award for its creative approach to providing free access to computers and the Internet and promoting literacy. The award includes a $1-million prize.
Since 1991, Rural Education and Development, or READ, which is based in Kathmandu, has worked with 39 villages to establish neighborhood libraries that offer books and other publications, educational materials, computers, and Internet access. The libraries also act as hubs for classes and other activities.
READ provides most of the money — residents are responsible for 20 percent of start-up costs — to design and build the libraries, train librarians, and start a business venture designed to generate the income needed to maintain the libraries. The businesses created have included a furniture factory, a printing press, a grain mill, and a rickshaw service.
In some villages, the ventures have generated enough money to both cover the library’s operating expenses and start new projects, such as child-care centers and health clinics.
The organization plans to use the prize money to increase the number of computers available in the libraries, provide new interactive educational and medical resources, and support the development of a local Internet network to reach remote places.
For more information: Go to http://www.readnepal.org.
