IN CAMBODIAN VILLAGE, NEW WORLD BECKONS
Adam Piore, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
The Boston Globe, November 5, 1999
ROBAP VILLAGE, Cambodia - Pam Meorn isn't sure exactly what the local children will do with the solar-powered computer that's part of the new school in his remote village. In fact, he's not exactly sure what a computer is. But he knows a good roof when he sees one - something some schools in the area lack. And he wants a good education for his grandchildren.
Yesterday, foreign donors descended from a helicopter to this village. They came to tell him and others that their new program will provide that education, and to serve notice that his war-ravaged community will soon be entering the Internet age. Meorn's village is the first to receive a new school as part of a project to improve education and introduce school children living in isolated Cambodian villages to the Internet. Though in its early stages, the project has already attracted some prominent backers, including the head of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's media lab, Professor Nicholas Negroponte , and a member of Japan's Parliament who sent two sons to Harvard. Both have donated money to fund new schools. The project's backers envision 200 privately funded schools in isolated areas where there are no telephone lines, and no money.
Each donation of $13,000 will be matched by credits from the World Bank social fund for Cambodia. Each school will come with a computer, educational programs, and two solar panels that will provide energy to power the computer for four to five hours a day.
The MIT media lab is working on a similar project that would provide satellite dishes and Internet access to isolated villages across the world. In Cambodia, the schools themselves are sorely needed, said Pok Than, secretary of state for the Ministry of Education.
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