Launch of 66 New Computer Clubs

Sixty-six new Computer Club will soon be set up in community centers, village hall and NGOs in Mauritius and Rodrigues. This is confirmed by the National Computer Board (NCB). Between 2009 and 2012, 208 Computer Clubs were established throughout the island in 23 youth centers, 17 centers for women, 82 community centers, 57 in Social Welfare Centres, Day 20 in -Care Centres and within nine NGOs, municipal halls and village halls.

These Computer Clubs were set up on a regional basis across the island through the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) initiated by the National Computer Board (NCB), which aims to enable the creation and sharing of information and knowledge for community development. These Computer Clubs aim to promote computer literacy in the community and democratize access to computers and internet. One way to help reduce the digital divide and reduce poverty by encouraging the community to use technology. The project is funded in part by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Microsoft and Mauritius Telecom Foundation.

Computers installed in the computer club of Net PCs funded and installed by Mauritius Telecom CSR through its foundation, provide access to the Internet and have several advantages. In fact, they work in Thin Client mode network and therefore do not use hard disk, but a case, keyboard, mouse and screen, freeing users from the cares of management and operation of a conventional computer . All software and applications are implemented in a central server remotely managed by MT. Each Computer Club has about three Net PCs.

These Computer Clubs have helped many people, including youth, the elderly and the unemployed, most of whom do not have the money to buy a computer, get familiar with computer hardware and software, to open world or to deepen their knowledge and culture in several areas. It is hard for the success of the NCB cybercaravans plying the four corners of the island since 2000, these computer clubs have emerged because people with computer courses, sought a permanent means of access to the Internet, Caravans can not travel in the same region every week.

Nearly 400,000 users have so far benefited from free access to internet through computer clubs, says the NCB.

The Computer Club that will emerge this year will be implemented in 50 community centers, six NGOs and Village Halls and ten Rodrigues, announces one. The NCB also emphasizes that measures have been taken to ensure the use of these facilities for persons outside of office hours. A content filtering system has also been implemented by the Service Provider (ISP) to prevent access to inappropriate content.