FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 30, 1999

Contact: Filippo Nardin (617) 951-0467

IDRC APPROVES GRANT TO AEAF FOR A SCHOOL NETWORKING PROJECT

The grant will be used to create an Information Technology facility for high school teachers and students in Luanda

BOSTON, MA - The Angola Educational Assistance Fund (AEAF) announced today that the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has approved a $21,500 grant to carry out school networking activities in Luanda,  The Catholic University of Angola (UCAN) has been designated as the site where AEAF will host this project.

IDRC is a public corporation created by the Canadian government to help communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research.  Its African headquarters is in Johannesburg and it is responsible for all activities carried out in sub-Saharan Africa.  In 1997, IDRC launched the Acacia Initiative, an international effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development.   The AEAF and UCAN represents an ideal partner for IDRC to bring the Acacia Initiative to Angola, and introduce information technology to primary and secondary schools.

"IDRC is a very competent and well respected organization, and we were able to convince them that, in spite of evident difficulties in carrying out this type of activities, Angola should not be left behind and should indeed be included in their strategy of helping schools and communities to use new communication technologies." said AEAF President Filippo Nardin. "It is our goal to use the grant to create a facility, based at UCAN, that will provide high school teachers and students a place where they can learn how to use information technology tools and communicate with their peers in the rest of the world".

AEAF intends to leverage the facilities that it  helped install at the Catholic University during the past year.  These include a  network of 100+ computers connected to the Internet via a wireless bridge and a satellite connection.   The International Telecomputing Consortium (ITC), a non-profit organization dedicated to provide Internet access in rural and under-developed areas of the world, has assisted and advised the AEAF during the proposal stage of the project.