CDI aims to expand its regional partnerships in the United States, commencing in New York. This event opened the doors for those who were interested to find out more about our work, support us and get involved. Check out some pictures!

Quote from the book “DreamMakers: Agentes de  Transformação – Featuring The Center for Digital Inclusion”

By Michele Hunt

INNOVATION | Sunset Open Bar

When:  August 14th, 2010, from 7pm – 9pm | Where:  The Surf Lodge 183 Edgemere Street – Montauk, NY Donations $75 | V.I.P. $500 (Table for 5)

Click here to purchase your tickets & tables

15 YEARS, 1.3 MILLION PEOPLE, 13 COUNTRIES

Founded in 1995, pioneer of the digital inclusion movement in Latin America, CDl (Center for Digital Inclusion) is one of the leading social enterprises in the world with a unique socio-educational approach. CDl founder and Ashoka fellow Rodrigo Baggio and our work at CDl have been recognized with more than 60 international awards. Today, we are a network of 816 self-managed and self-sustainingCDl Community Centers throughout Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, United Kingdom, Jordan and United States monitored and coordinated by 24 regional offices.

Our mission is to transform lives and strengthen low-income communities by empowering people with information and communication technology. We use technology as a medium to fight poverty, stimulate entrepreneurship and create a new generation of change makers.

CDl is an international NGO with US501 c3 status, headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, with operations in the US, UK and across LatinAmerica. With the support of James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank and theWolfensohn Institute, CDl has recently expanded to the Arabic and North Africa (MENA) region, to be followed by India and other parts of Africa.

The INNOVATION event in Montauk is an opportunity to introduce the work done by CDI and its worldwide network. CDI aims to expand its regional partnerships in the United States, commencing in New York. This event will open the doors for those who are interested to find out more about our work and want to support and get involved.

Join us for an informative afternoon to see what has affected 1.3 MILLION PEOPLE in 13 COUNTRIES over the last 15 YEARS.

Questions? Please contact Vanessa Simone Pereira – Executive Director USA: vanessa.simone@cdiglobal.org

Join us in Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147447208615582#!/event.php?eid=147447208615582

The Apps for Good Programme will enable young people in low-income communities to use, design and develop mobile and web-based applications for social change and community action. The key aim of the programme is to offer participants leading-edge problem-solving and technology skills based on Google’s Android platform to allow them to move on into education, employment or entrepreneurship. CDI plans to expand to four other UK locations by the end of the year.

Today’s digital society has changed the way people connect, communicate and learn. As a result, technology has become key in unlocking the imagination and creativity of young people around the world to thrive and succeed in life. On this premise, in December 2009 CDI Europe was awarded a Dell YouthConnect grant that aims to improve access to technology in the UK and help young people develop the transferable skills needed to enhance their lives and pursue professional careers.

Founded in 1995 in Rio de Janeiro, CDI has grown immensely in Latin America and expanded to the Middle East during the past 15 years. Its global vision reached the UK last summer when CDI carried out an in-depth UK digital inclusion market study in order to identify opportunities for it to help create a Digital Britain. After evaluating the results of this study, CDI decided to adapt its trusted and tested model during a 12-month pilot programme. In the UK, CDI will take advantage of the multimedia and geolocation capabilities of smartphones, but also integrate IT and social media skills to fill technology skill gaps of participating young people – Apps for Good.

Iris Lapinski, Director CDI Europe, responsible for the pilot programme comments: “It does not happen too often that social solutions are transferred from the ‘South’ to the ‘North’. CDI’s education model was created in Brazil and has had great social impact. We are now using leading-edge technology to inspire young people in the UK and to redefine the future of our work globally. If successful, we hope to turn Apps for Good into a model for digital inclusion and community-based learning across the developed and developing world”.

Check out more about the programme at http://appsforgood.org.

Reconectar tecnológicamente a las personas y organizaciones sociales de la región del Maule y del Bío-Bío afectadas por el terremoto con sus familiares, comunidades y autoridades es el objetivo del telecentro móvil que la ONG CDI Chile, organización que preside la Asociación de Telecentros Activos de Chile (ATACH), pondrá en marcha a partir de este martes 9 de marzo de 2010 en el marco de la campaña “Dona a quienes saben cómo ayudar”.

El plan consiste en generar un espacio de interacción que entregue conectividad a los afectados por medio de 10 notebooks habilitados con cámaras web, acceso a Internet y llamadas nacionales e internacionales gratuitas a través de Skype en un telecentro móvil que recorrerá distintas organizaciones sociales de la zona. De este modo, las personas podrán interactuar virtualmente con sus familiares, amigos y comunidades de interés, además de realizar trámites en línea, revisar noticias, y asociarse a otros proyectos que vayan en ayuda de sus localidades.

En este sentido, el itinerario inicial de dicho centro tecnológico tiene una duración de dos semanas, gracias al aporte realizado por la Embajada de Canadá, sin embargo, CDI Chile y sus redes han habilitado diversos espacios donde se recibirán donaciones para extender los recorridos y zonas de cobertura (ver listado de hipervínculos al final del comunicado).

Una de las primeras localidades a visitar será la ciudad de Lota, lugar en el que CDI Chile mantiene una fuerte alianza de larga data con Fundación CEPA – Centro Cultural Comunitario Pabellón 83, la cual desde 2005 ha desarrollado diversos programas de inclusión digital con los habitantes del sector; para luego continuar en un recorrido de ayuda tecnológica a otras ONGs de la red CDI Chile que aún no cuentan con líneas telefónicas, luz o Internet.

Asimismo, el telecentro móvil tiene como fin la realización de un catastro respecto a la situación tecnológica en que se encuentran tanto juntas de vecinos, como ONGs, fundaciones, corporaciones y otras organizaciones sin fines de lucro que cumplen un rol esencial en la reconstrucción de las ciudades devastadas por el terremoto y el maremoto del sábado 27 de febrero pasado, con el fin de refortalecer estas redes y crear espacios efectivos de ayuda a la comunidad.

En este sentido, dicho diagnóstico permitirá en los próximos días canalizar recursos específicos y adecuados a los requerimientos en Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, por medio de aportes realizados por empresas, ONGs y personas naturales en www.donatec.cl, el portal de donaciones tecnológicas administrado por CDI Chile.

Si usted quiere realizar un aporte a nuestra campaña, puede hacerlo de las siguientes formas:

*A través del portal Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/chile-earthquake-relief/

*A través del portal DonaTec: www.donatec.cl

*Si estás en el extranjero: helpngos@cdichile.org

*Si estás en Chile: ayudamovil@cdichile.org

Más información en los sitios:

*Sitio CDI Chile: www.cdichile.org

*Sitio Campaña CDI Chile “Dona a quienes saben cómo ayudar”:

www.gocdichile.ning.com

*Sitio de nuestro socio TechSoup Global:

http://blog.techsoup.org/node/1190

*E-mail: contactenos@donatec.cl

*Facebook: “Donatec de CDI Chile”

Ex-coach from Bill Clinton’s administration team speaks about engaging employees in the private and public sector. By Paola de Moura, from Rio

Working with American government employees was more difficult than with the prisoners in a Detroit prison.  That’s how Michele Hunt, executive coach of top multinational companies and author of the book “DreamMakers”, defined the challenge of working on Bill Clinton’s team.  Her goal was to reinvent the way of working inside the American government.

In the beginning of her career, in the 70s, Michele was the first woman to work inside a male prison in the United States.  In 1978, when she was 29 years old, she was promoted to Director of Social Projects in a prison in the western region of Detroit.  There she developed various programs with the prisoners.   She organized a triple party system to make decisions, in which employees, prisoners and community volunteers all participated.

After a skyrocketing career in multinational Herman Miller, office furniture designer and manufacturer, she was chosen by president Bill Clinton in 1992 to work on his transition team.  She became the executive director of the Federal Institute of the United States, a division managed by vice-president Al Gore.  The objective was to create a government that worked better with less cost.

She believes that changing the culture of government employees, which for years has worked in the same way and format, is very difficult.  “They were very resistant”, she said.  To help working with the government it was necessary to bring in top management gurus to make speeches, such as Peter Senge and Jack Welch.  The examples served within time to change the team’s mindset.

The director introduced the American government to the type of thinking that was developed over time while she was in charge of the “people department” at Herman Miller.  They believe that every staff member has to have the same goal and respect the consumers vision – in this case, it was the American citizen.   Everyone has to be involved at work: employees, clients, partners and the community.  “Vision is our compass.  Values are our steers”.  Michele believes that “when people are mobilized by a convincing vision shared by enriched values, they are capable of contributing and creating extraordinary things.”

The writer cites for example the government’s success on a project created to accelerate research and development on drugs to treat AIDS.  “During that time, scientists worked in isolation in the pharmaceutical industry.  And we observed that it would take 30, 40 years to provide results.”  So we brought both together in research groups where a dialogue and data exchange was created, and resulted in producing quick results.  It allowed the perfection of an extended line of drugs that today has sustained and improved the quality of lives for people that carry the AIDS virus.

The team has to be totally aligned, and to do that they need to be part of the process, the system, the policies, the decisions and the behavior.  That way, organizations are united in teams with employees from all different levels to work side by side to exchange ideas and projects.  The communication itself is an essential tool for the staff to adapt and believe in the leadership.

In addition, a good measurement system is necessary to accompany the company’s financial progress, employee engagement, client satisfaction and social responsibility.  It’s necessary for everyone to consistently be learning.  “Through new skills and competencies employees can reach an established designed vision.”

Michele believes that motivating talents doesn’t always require high salaries.  She herself declined a job that paid five times more in the beginning of her career to work at Herman Miller.  In her speeches she often cites a quote from Dee Hock, founder and first president of Visa, which says “money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality.”

Besides working with top clients, such as IBM, Motorola, NASA and Banco do Brasil, Michele also works with communities and social organizations.  She traveled to Brazil to learn more about Rodrigo Baggio’s CDI (Committee for Democracy in Information Technology), a non-profit organization that provides computers to low income communities.  The organization’s objective is to promote social inclusion, citizenship and entrepreneurship through information technology and communication training.

She met Baggio at a course in Oxford.  He identified himself as a “dreammaker” and told her about CDI’s work.  “I was so impressed.  I’ve been to poor countries on every continent and I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.  That’s why for the second edition of the book in Brazil, scheduled for June, the only case featured will be CDI.  “Brazilians don’t need to learn from other cases.  There’s an excellent story here that serves as an example”.

Michele herself can serve as an example of what segregation and lack of opportunities can generate.  In the 60s, her family was the first to live on an american military base.  Her father was part of the Air-Force and lived in many states in the south of the country, among the most segregated of the time.

When she was a child, her schoolmates and teachers called her a derogatory term for negro.  But her father, “a dreammaker”, as she says, would make her repeat in front of the mirror:  “I am healthy, I am happy, I am beautiful, I am intelligent, and I am loved.”  She says that rather than be offended, she would remember her mantra.  That’s how her first insights began which later formed her “dreammaker” theory.

Michele doesn’t like to be called consultant.  According to her, her mission is to be a “catalyst”.  “I want to help people transform their organizations, communities and even society as a whole.”

Skype Partners with NGO CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) in Brazil

Partnership will Enable Hundreds of Thousands of People at the Base of the Pyramid with Communication Tools to Improve their lives

São Paulo, December 1, 2009 — Skype today announced a partnership with CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) (www.cdi.org.br), one of the world´s leading social enterprises and pioneer of the digital inclusion movement in Latin America. CDI is currently present in 13 countries on 3 continents, and is focused on transforming the lives of impoverished populations through technology, citizenship and entrepreneurship.

As part of the partnership, beginning this month, CDI will develop courses on how to use Skype to be made available at the 554  technology and learning community centers in Brazil (known as CDI Community Centers). Currently, this network is located in almost every Brazilian state and provides courses to approximately 70.000 people per year, in areas of low-income communities, indigenous communities, hospitals for mentally and physically disabled, as well as youth & adult detention facilities.

Skype is also sponsoring the CDI Community Center “Mensageiros da Esperança”, in São Paulo, located in a shantytown at Rua Joao Paulo I, 1671, between the low income neighbourhoods of Freguesia do Ó and Brasilândia.  This community center provides information communication technology education and services to an average daily of 90 children, beginning at 7 years old. This center also employs young people on parole and serves the community with a graphic bureau and internet access.

“Skype is about removing barriers and together with CDI, we will be able to contribute positively in their mission of taking technology to under privileged communities  by offering them the opportunity to learn and experience a new way to communicate, share and exchange ideas,”  said Don Albert, Vice-President and General Manager for the Americas of Skype. “This is the first step of a partnership that we soon expect to expand to other Latin American countries,” he added.

Each one of the Community Centers was created not only to bring information technology to disadvantaged communities, but also to make technology relevant and useful for them as a tool to exercise their full capacities as citizens. The users of the Community Centers where Skype courses will be offered, will learn to make Skype calls and video calls, as well as to use other features such as chat, conference calls, screen sharing and file transfer.

“At CDI, we truly believe that digital inclusion is not just about providing access to computers, but training people to use knowledge to become independent, to create and develop opportunities,” said Rodrigo Baggio, founder and executive director of CDI. “In Brazil, 47% of Internet’s usage in urban areas takes place in public places. Our community learning centers allow excluded populations to tap into the great potential of the technological revolution, and together with partners such as Skype we will continue to transform lives and communities.”

Additionally, Skype will also be used as one of the online training tools for CDI’s employees and affiliates at the 803 CDI Community Centers worldwide, and the 2,602 CDI Lan Houses (cyber cafés) in Brazil, which reach more than 600,000 people a month. CDI LAN House is a new social business division of CDI that aims to affiliate and transform cyber cafes into a triple bottom-line center for digital inclusion for the base of the pyramid, promoting healthy, safe and sustainable practices.  The affiliation program requires that cyber cafes adopt a code of conduct and offers mentoring, training, business development and other services.

About CDI

Founded in 1995, CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) is an international NGO with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and operations in the USA, the United Kingdom, Jordan and throughout Latin America. As the pioneer of digital inclusion in Latin America, CDI’s mission is to transform lives and strengthen low-income communities by empowering people with information and communication technology. Today, CDI has benefited over 1.25 million people through its network of approximately 900 self-managed and self-sustaining CDI Community Centers throughout Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Jordan, which are monitored and coordinated by 32 regional offices.  Led by renowned social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow Rodrigo Baggio, CDI has been recognized with more than 60 international awards.

About Skype

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Every day, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.

Contacts:

Skype: Fabiana Jacomini, Smart: +55 11 3376-5000, fabiana@smartci.com.br

CDI: Elis Monteiro, CDI: + 55 21 3235-9459, elis.monteiro@cdi.org.br

The Ashoka Support Network is a global community of successful business people who share our belief that entrepreneurs are the primary engine for economic and social development. They engage with Ashoka, committing time and resources to support the work of social entrepreneurs.

ASN members are business entrepreneurs, top executives, investment bankers, venture capitalists, and consultants from Europe, the US, South America, India and beyond, as our network rapidly expands.

If you would like to join us tonight, please, forward your details to Silvia Giovannoni, from ASN: sgiovannoni@ashoka.org

Violence in Rio de Janeiro Slum Where CDI School Resides Makes International Headlines

In the wake of the announcement that Brazil has won the 2016 Olympics, an outbreak of drug trafficking violence occurred in a favela called Morro dos Macacos making international news. CEAC (Center for Education and Service to Youth) one of the projects featured on Global Giving is an oasis in the middle of the violence. 

Twenty years of rival gang wars and the fight between the police forces and the traffickers in this slum and hundreds of others throughout Rio amounts to what many outsiders refer to as a ‘civil war’. The violent methods for containing these wars have been criticized by the United Nations and Amnesty International. While the politics of these everyday occurrences play out, innocent residents, including children are caught in the crossfire.

The ongoing gang wars highlight the need for opportunities for youth growing up in slums where the prevailing high wage jobs are in drug trafficking, where children as young as ten years old are recruited into gangs.  Access to CDI schools and the internet that comes with them can open up a world of possibilities for youth who often have no experience with a reality other than the one that they experience in the slums where they live.

In addition to IT skills, CDI schools through their curriculum teach residents how to solve problems that plaque their communities; communities that can lack access to such necessities as basic sanitation, health clinics, and access to safe areas to play and enough seats for students to attend public education.

There are more than 250 CDI schools throughout Rio de Janeiro’s slum communities alone where the realities highlighted internationally in October are an everyday occurrence and do not make the news.

To learn more about this project or to donate visit them on the Global Giving website, click here:

You can read an in depth article about the current civil violence between police and traffickers and the innocent citizens that are caught in the middle here:

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14090&ArticleId=345806

World Wide Web Foundation Launches Global Operations

Inspiring Projects Announced at the 2009 Internet Governance Forum

GENEVA and BOSTON, MA – November 16, 2009  – World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the Web to empower people, announced yesterday the launch of global operations including the existence of its first projects. Speaking at the 2009 Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a Web Foundation board member, unveiled the organization’s new partnerships with VU University Amsterdam (VU) in the Netherlands and CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) based in Brazil.

Web Foundation is delighted to announce a partnership with the VU to expedite “re-greening” initiatives throughout the African continent. This new program, Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), will train and assist local developers to implement and deploy mobile Web- and voice-based platforms to improve communication between agricultural specialists and farmers in Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries.

“The W4RA facilitates the sharing of successful agricultural techniques developed by farmers for others to raise crops in the arid conditions of the Sahel, where climate change and drought threaten the livelihood of entire communities,” explained Steve Bratt, Chief Executive Officer of Web Foundation. “This project meets one of Web Foundation’s main objectives: to assist people to leverage the Web as a medium for sharing life-critical content and dialog, and thus using the Web as an agent of social and economic progress.”

In addition, Web Foundation proudly announces a project with the CDI, an international, social enterprise dedicated to teaching disadvantaged youth how to use information technologies.

While roughly 25 percent of the world population uses the Web today, more than 70 percent of people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content. The gap in Web usage is partly attributable to the lack of accessible or relatable content, and the lack of available training on how to use the Web to its full potential. Web Foundation and CDI will develop training programs that empower young people to create Web sites and applications. In an effort to improve the accessibility of this content, the system will be mobile ready and integrate the use of voice as an interface. Five pilot training programs will be established in inner-city community centers in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

“We are enthusiastic about this partnership because we believe the combined expertise of CDI and Web Foundation has the potential to create powerful innovation in the use of mobile, voice and graphical technologies,” said Rodrigo Baggio, Founder and Executive Director, CDI. “By empowering impoverished communities to create and share relevant content through mobile phones and other devices, we will expand our work of transforming lives and communities.”

The projects with VU and CDI constitute the launch of global operations for the Web Foundation and its unique mission is to advance the Web as a medium for empowering people seeking to effect positive change in their lives and communities. Through its collaboration with the Web Science Trust and the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Foundation’s programs will also seek to understand the Web’s complexities, explore new Web technologies and ensure that the Web works to serve all people around the world.

Please visit www.webfoundation.org/programs for more information about Web Foundation and its new programs.

About World Wide Web Foundation

World Wide Web Foundation develops transformative programs to advance the Web as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change. Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, experts, developers and end users to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale. By funding education, outreach, research and the next generation of Web technologies, Web Foundation strives to enable all people to share knowledge, access services, conduct commerce, participate in good governance and communicate in creative ways. For more information, please visit www.webfoundation.org.

Media inquiries should be directed to:

World Wide Web Foundation

Vera Newhouse

Tel: +1 212 819 4878

Email: press@webfoundation.org

CDI

Elis Monteiro

Tel: +55 21 3235 9463

Email: elis.monteiro@cdi.org.br