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NGO to use Simputer to promote education in rural areas

A non-governmental organisation in New Delhi plans to use Simputers, the inexpensive computer, to make education accessible to people in rural areas in South Asia.

The South Asia Foundation, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the US-based WorldSpace Foundation in New Delhi on Friday, and launched a portal called Rainbow Partnership Organisation, said the portal would take education to the remotest areas 'easily and inexpensively' by using Simputers.

The Simputers, the low-cost, hand-held, Internet appliance would facilitate the education programme to be provided in the various languages of the region, a spokesperson for the SAF said.

SAF chairman and former diplomat Madanjeet Singh, who signed the MoU with Gracia Hilman of the WorldSpace Foundation at a function here, said the project would promote 'grassroots education' in the seven South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation countries --Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Under the MoU, the WorldSpace Foundation would provide the RPO link with its satellite, which covers the whole of the region, free of cost as well as related expertise and maintenance of the system. The SAF will provide the required hardware.

The RPO portal, which will be linked to a WorldSpace satellite, will be directly connected to the Simputer, making it easily accessible to communities in remote parts of the SAARC countries.

The portal will have seven channels devoted to education, sustainable development, environment, human rights and civic duties, health and family planning, trade and economy. It will also have an information database, SAF said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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