It forms part of the second edition of the NGO IT Connection Day, an initiative involving the collaboration of Mauritius Council of Social Services (MACOSS), Microsoft and SOS Poverty.
The ICT minister commended such laudable initiative which goes in line with the government’s vision to create an Intelligent Mauritius. “We have a target to exceed 90 per cent of computer literacy rate in the island by 2015. Computer and internet facilities are being made available in many places but it is important that the citizens know how to make use of these tools,” said Chedumbrum. He also commented on the WiFi project which will also have a social aspect and appealed to the private sector to collaborate in this endeavour.
“Our aim is to put people first and the government is doing every single effort to make internet accessible to everyone. We are offering free IC3 courses to the elderly and set up computer clubs across the island,” he added. The minister also talked about the national ID card project which is moving in the right direction.
Mohammad Santally, vice president of SOS poverty underlined that 2,700 persons have so far benefited from the IT courses. MACOSS president, Denis Grandport intervened and stressed on the importance of IT in today’s society. “IT is an important tool for the NGOs as it will enable them to adopt a more professional approach,” said Grandport.
Lindsay Pointu, project coordinator of E-inclusion foundation stated that 2,000 PCs have already been distributed so far and by December, the figure is expected to reach 3,000. “We intend to distribute 600 PCs to underprivileged families, 570 to pre-primary schools in underprivileged regions and 250 PCs to training centres,” he said.