Microsoft congratulates the following Unlimited Potential (UP) grant recipients. We are proud to support their work.
Australia
Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association (ASCCA)
In Australia, there is a generational digital divide between the older generation, which has not had access to technology on the job or in school, and the younger generation, which is mostly computer literate. As in many developed countries, the percentage of Australia's population aged 65 and over is increasing, creating even greater demand for accessible technology and training for seniors. Increasing productivity and opportunities to stay in the work force are of prime importance to the Australian economy. Through ASCCA, Unlimited Potential (UP) will provide practical IT skills and knowledge to address this issue. With 110 seniors centers under the UP umbrella, ASCCA offers outstanding training opportunities for Australian seniors nationwide and will train 16,000 Australian seniors in 2006. The seniors centers have modified the UP curriculum to suit the training needs of seniors, and this curriculum will be shared across the ASCCA network.
Inspire Foundation
Inspire Foundation aims to provide educational, social, and employment opportunities for young people aged 14 to 25 through tailored and targeted computer training and Internet access. Working with existing youth centers in major cities across Australia, Inspire has established 20 Beanbag Centers and provided opportunities to an estimated 20,000 young people who access the youth centers each year. Inspire has also provided direct computer training to more than 2,700 young people. Funding and support provided by Microsoft Australia since the beginning of the program has enabled Inspire to develop the program to its present stage. Further funding in 2006 will contribute to the expanded training of 8,970 young people and youth workers, as well as to evaluation of the program and the establishment of three additional centers.
The Smith Family (TSF)
Within Australia's disadvantaged communities, 83 percent do not have access to technology. The poor, elderly, indigenous, and remote communities are most impacted by the digital divide. Australian populations with the highest birthrate are those from low socioeconomic status and indigenous backgrounds. This national-level project addresses those key population segments affected by the digital divide through TSF, a nonprofit organization that supports financially disadvantaged children and families to create a better future through education. Technology access and training assists these disadvantaged populations in connecting their communities, increasing employability, and participating positively in society. TSF will support their more than 80 existing UP centers, attract new UP centers to the program, and develop and share expertise on curriculum, volunteer management, and training techniques using the UP Community Portal. Combined efforts will result in 8,500 disadvantaged Australians being trained and reached in 2006.
WorkVentures
Almost 80 percent of all the residents of Sydney's public housing estates do not have access to computers at home or work. These communities house people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, including recent immigrants, long-term unemployed people, seniors, and indigenous Australians. WorkVentures provides technology access and training to these communities through a network of Neighborhood Technology Centers. In 2005 WorkVentures created a successful train-the-trainer program for UP curriculum. In 2006, training will continue and will include outreach government-funded CTCs. Combined efforts will result in 5,512 disadvantaged Australians trained in 2006.
Yarnteen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
Research papers, statistics, and evidence from the community clearly indicate that indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged of all groups in Australia. The community suffers from lower life expectancy, higher birthrate, chronic diseases, lower levels of education and employment, and many social issues related to petrol sniffing, drug abuse, and domestic violence. Yarnteen is an indigenous-managed organization that has been successful in indigenous IT education and in the development of employment opportunities for local communities. Their work with the Indigenous Language Database preserves not only language, but also priceless cultural identity. In doing so, it instills a sense of pride and identity. This grant will enable Yarnteen to provide technology training to 2,400 indigenous people in 2006, with the goal of securing employment and providing a greater sense of cultural identity for trainees. The Indigenous Language Database will introduce technology to a further 176 remote indigenous communities.
China
Beijing Young Entrepreneurs' Association (BYEA)
Migrant workers in China face many challenges and often lack the opportunity to upgrade their skills so they can find better jobs. The BYEA, in cooperation with government, community, and educational institutions, will provide IT skills training to more than 1,000 migrant workers through the establishment of two CTCs in Beijing. Through this training, BYEA helps migrant workers gain access to practical information, improve their employment skills, and integrate into the community in which they live and work.
Plan International (PI)
Plan International will set up two CTCs in Xi'an and Nanjing to provide basic IT skills training for migrant workers. PI will leverage their network of partners—including the Women's Federation and grassroots nonprofit organizations—along with the existing facilities in these two cities to provide a range of services, including IT skills training. In the first year, more than 1,300 people will be trained, most of them female migrant workers. This project will also explore how to best incorporate resources and services from various channels for the disadvantaged groups in the community, with migrant workers as the main beneficiaries.
The Asia Foundation (TAF)
Building on the success of its first CTC in Sanxiang, TAF will establish a second CTC in Guangdong Province, China. TAF will leverage its network of partners, including the Women's Federation, Guangdong Women Cadres School, and the existing facilities in Guangdong Province, to provide a range of services to female migrant workers employed by local manufacturing plants. In the first year, more than 700 migrant workers will be trained in basic IT skills. The CTC will also provide female migrant workers with access to training on other subjects to help them better integrate with the local community.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)
Despite the affluence of the general population in Hong Kong, more than 1 million individuals live in poverty. Concerned about intergenerational poverty, the HKCSS is actively working to address this issue. One of their flagship projects is the successful partnership with the Education and Manpower Bureau to recycle old PCs from schools. These PCs are donated to school-aged children living in poverty. This program, scheduled to start in January 2006 under the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher program, will refurbish 20,000 PCs for these children. The UP program runs in parallel to provide comprehensive IT training to the parents, the majority of whom have only a lower secondary-school education. By collaborating with six frontline nonprofit organizations, HKCSS aims to train more than 10,000 parents within 18 months. The training will also provide a springboard for career development for the parents, further benefiting the families.
India
Development Alternatives
In some of the poorest districts and regions of India, women have limited access to rights, entitlements, quality education, and financial independence because the social environment imposes enormous sociocultural barriers and constraints upon them. Development Alternatives is a nonprofit organization that believes the key to achieving sustainable development is the creation of sustainable livelihoods in large numbers. In 2004 and 2005, Microsoft partnered with TARAhaat, the implementation arm of the Development Alternatives Group, to roll out the Microsoft UP program. The program was a landmark initiative to bridge the gap in IT skills for disadvantaged women in rural India. In the second year of the program, TARAhaat will strengthen its outreach to women, mainly in Bundelkhand and Punjab, by training 90 women Master Trainers and 3,500 students in 60 training centers.
Drishtee Foundation
The Drishtee Foundation introduces the benefits of information and communications technology (ICT) to millions of villagers in the remote villages of India. In this project, Drishtee Foundation focuses on women entrepreneurs and supports them in establishing IT kiosk businesses. This venture also builds capacity in the villagers, allowing them to take advantage of ICT. The Drishtee Foundation's goal is to directly train 1,400 women in IT skills over the next year. The grant will be used to provide IT skills training, support efforts in capacity building, and nurture an initial 350 women, helping them to develop an entrepreneurial spirit and establish themselves as successful kiosk operators. This project also aids rural women by providing them with better access to health and educational resources, thus improving nutrition and socioeconomic status for their families.
Grameen Sanchar Society (GRASSO)
GRASSO seeks to enable a self-sufficient rural West Bengal by establishing self-employment schemes that enable villagers to generate income and wealth. GRASSO will set up 1,500 Community Information and Services Centers (CISCs) across rural West Bengal over two years. A typical CISC will be a hybrid for-profit services center and a nonprofit community resource center for information, education, and training, and will be run by an entrepreneur. It will serve various community segments, including farmers, youth, female self-help, and micro-credit groups. In addition to various IT-enabled services, the CISC will offer free IT skills training to the community. Through the 1,500 centers, the project will train more than 67,800 people within two years.
Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP)
ISAP is a nonprofit organization with expertise and reach in India's agricultural sector. This project leverages those strengths to bring the benefits of IT to rural communities that are below the poverty line. The project specifically targets poor and marginalized farmers, craftsmen, micro-entrepreneurs, women, and unemployed youth through 350 village-level CTCs in Maharashtra. More than 44,000 people will be trained in IT skills over two years, enabling farmers to access relevant agricultural information and databases as well as expert technical advice.
Japan
National Council of Women's Centers (NCWC)
Japan's National Council of Women's Centers focuses on activities that promote the empowerment of women and gender equality. The National Council will conduct train-the-trainers courses for women, providing IT skills training and employment support. The women will, in turn, disseminate the train-the-trainer framework to women's support centers across the country. The National Council will work in close collaboration with the National Women's Shelter-Net, another network nonprofit organization that works with women who are victims of domestic violence. The two national organizations will work together to leverage their experience and their national networks of women’s support organizations. The target populations will include victims of domestic violence, single mothers on social welfare, and other women in financial difficulties. The project will train more than 1,900 women within the year. It will also create a guidebook for local women's organizations that want to offer similar IT skills training and support services.
Korea
Care Korea
Korea has an aging population, and many retired older people do not have the basic IT skills they need to be active in the modern world. Care Korea is a national organization that addresses the welfare of older citizens in Korea. In partnership with the Korean Senior Citizens' Association and Kangnam University, Care Korea will manage a nationwide program, providing introductory training in Internet skills for seniors. The project hopes to reach 9,600 seniors through IT courses conducted at 600 Community Senior Centers throughout the country.
Korean Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO)
KADO, a public organization established under the Closing the Digital Divide Act, will use this grant to expand its programs for Korea's "Silvers." After creating 24 CTCs at senior welfare service centers and universities in the first phase, KADO next focused on training selected seniors as IT trainers who can teach basic IT skills to their peers. These trainers conduct training at CTCs and at senior community homes. This grant enables KADO to reach its second phase goal of training 6,152 seniors and to build an online service center to match senior IT instructors to trainees.
Malaysia
eHomemakers
eHomemakers is a nonprofit social enterprise that strives to improve the status of women by harnessing the possibilities of information and communications technology for development (ICT4D). As an organization that promotes teleworking and working at home, eHomemakers provides training for women to set up home offices or take up teleworking as an alternate form of employment. Homemakers who previously felt left out economically are now empowered as the breadwinners of the family. Training programs are also organized for the underprivileged, single mothers, and disabled women to help them gain ICT and specific skills. With this grant, eHomemakers hopes to provide ICT skills training for 60 disadvantaged women to enable them to set up home-based administrative assistance services and to support these women with job placement.
National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO)
The NCWO is an umbrella body for more than 80 women's organizations in Malaysia. Among its many programs, the NCWO aims to empower women through capacity building, with IT skills training being one of the focus areas. Along with its partner organizations, the NCWO will train 400 young women, single mothers, and seniors in IT skills at three CTCs. Trainees will learn word processing, spreadsheet, and Internet skills to increase their employability, improve their ability to conduct e-commerce, and reduce the isolation and fear caused by the fast progress of information and communication technology.
Yayasan Salam Malaysia
Poverty and lack of IT skills training are areas of concern in rural Malaysia. Targeting low-income communities, out-of-school youths, and adults, Yayasan Salam Malaysia will manage sustainable training centers equipped with a full IT training curriculum. Over the next 12 months, Yayasan Salam plans to expand its 3 existing CTCs into a network of 10 centers across both peninsular and east Malaysia. The centers will offer courses on word processing, spreadsheets, graphics and presentations, desktop publishing, the Internet and e-mail, Web development and maintenance, and hardware maintenance. The goal is to train 400 people in the first year and 2,100 over three years.
Philippines
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are known as the new heroes of the Philippines. With more than 8 million OFWs around the world, comprising about 10 percent of the Philippine population, they remit more than US$8 billion per year to the Philippines. Tulay III (tulay means "bridge" in Filipino) is an extension of the Tulay program that was first implemented in 2004. The program aims to provide IT skills training and access to technology to OFWs and their families to help them expand their horizons, gain better employment and business opportunities, and gain access to technology to bridge the physical divide with family members they leave behind in the Philippines. Tulay III will be implemented in three community centers: one in Saudi Arabia, which has the largest concentration of OFWs in the world, and two in different areas in the Philippines (Ilocos and Mindanao) that boast more than 1 million OFW families. (Tulay I supported centers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Manila; Tulay II expanded the network to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Cebu.) Tulay III is expected to train more than 6,000 OFWs and their family members in its first year of operations.
Sri Lanka
InfoShare
In Sri Lanka, youth unemployment is a prominent issue. The problem is exacerbated by a lack of training in skills that are relevant to the market. This nationwide project is designed to achieve twin goals: increasing IT literacy and thereby promoting employability of rural youth. The project is a multi-stakeholder partnership between civil organizations (InfoShare and its NGO partners), the government (Vocational Training Authority, or VTA), and donors (USAID and Microsoft). Approximately 60 CTCs located at VTA facilities will be supported, with upgraded infrastructure development supported by Microsoft in four regional centers, and additional infrastructure provided by USAID for VTA centers in the tsunami-affected areas. Using the UP curriculum as a base, the project team will develop industry-relevant courses that enhance the employability of the students. A train-the-trainer component will cover 180 VTA and NGO trainers; InfoShare will also establish a help desk to provide telephone support to these trainers. More than 3,200 people will receive the direct benefit of IT skills training at the centers. An additional 12,000 people will participate via the information and communications technology awareness program.
Taiwan
Electronic Commerce Business Association (ECBA)
The ECBA joins the network of organizations that launched the successful Women UP program in 2004. The ECBA will organize Phase II of the initiative, which parallels the government's interest in stimulating economic growth in rural enterprises and microenterprises. In Phase II, the ECBA will develop tailored training for women entrepreneurs in rural, remote, and traditional communities. The ECBA plans to form 15 clusters of 10 to 50 women from these communities. These women will receive IT skills training that will help them launch their microbusinesses online. This online presence will allow the women to promote their products and services to the 10,000-strong e-community of women created in Phase I of the program. The ECBA will also form an advisory board to monitor gender dynamics and help resolve and prevent gender issues and conflicts.
Thailand
Population and Community Development Association
The Population and Community Development Association is one of Thailand's most well-established and diverse nonprofit organizations. It currently operates five CTCs in rural Thailand, in Korat, Bureerum, Khao, and Krabi. UP support will allow the program to expand its reach, providing IT skills training to out-of-school youth, factory workers, cooperative members, villagers with HIV/AIDS, children affected by HIV/AIDS, and tsunami disaster victims who face unemployment. The association expects to train more than 2,600 people in the first year of the program and more than 4,600 in three years.
Vietnam
Center for Research and Consulting on Management (CRC)
Vietnam has an acute need for technology training. Most of its citizens lack fundamental IT skills and are therefore unable to leverage technology to further their knowledge. The software and training components of digital inclusion have not received sufficient public and private funding. The CRC is a nonprofit organization that contributes to economic reform and development in Vietnam through a variety of services, including IT skills training. In partnership with Microsoft and other donors, CRC will manage a nationwide program to distribute the UP curriculum to 500 vocational schools, conduct regional train-the-trainer programs, and provide help desk support. The program will create or upgrade one CTC per province, thereby providing 20,000 people with access to skilled teachers, upgraded computer equipment, and self-sustaining learning centers. With this nationwide program of access and skills, trainees can further their studies, improve their knowledge, and increase their employment opportunities.
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