October 5, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
By NICOLE WALLACE
Technology-savvy volunteers are working on projects in developing countries through a number of new programs.
- The United Nations Information Technology Service (http://www.unites.org) encourages both international volunteers and volunteers in the countries it serves to sign up for assignments.
The service’s first project started in August in the Indian state of Orissa. Eight Indian volunteers are helping the state government use information technology to coordinate efforts to rebuild areas devastated by a cyclone last year. Other United Nations volunteers are working in Benin, Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ecuador, Jordan, Namibia, and Tanzania.
- Since 1999, NetCorps Americas (http://cct.georgetown.edu/development/netcorps) has sent 25 technology volunteers to Latin America and the Caribbean. The corps, which is run by the Trust for the Americas, in Washington, first focused on working with small businesses in the tourism industry.
This summer, however, a group of volunteers traveled to Central America to provide information-technology training to people with disabilities.
- Geekcorps (http://geekcorps.org) is a new charity in North Adams, Mass., that sends technology professionals with at least three years of experience to developing countries to help owners of small businesses use the Internet to develop their companies.
After a two-week training program at Geekcorps’s headquarters, the first class of six volunteers left for Accra, Ghana, last week.
