While
there may be a digital divide between the haves and have-nots, there are now
more opportunities to leverage technology to help and enable the
underprivileged, said industry observers.
Clair
Deevy, community affairs lead for Asia Pacific at Microsoft, said in an
interview with ZDNet Asia Friday that there was a "constant
evolution" and highlighted the advent of social businesses as one of the
products of the evolution.
"Where
technology may have created a divide, it is also creating a bridge. This area
in the middle between non-profits and commercial organizations, the idea that
you can do both--having a business that has a positive social impact and be
commercial successful."
In the
same interview, Ponheary Ly, founder of The Ponheary Ly Foundation which helps the poorest
children in Cambodia attend school, gave an example of a video that
some students had made that highlighted a problem their village of 200 families
faced with some broken water wells.
The
students learnt
videography from a U.S. volunteer and put the video on YouTube earlier
this year.
According
to Ly, the video, which won the first runner-up prize at Water Day
Film Festival, also got the attention of a U.S. organization that plans to come
to the village to provide them tools and teach them how to fix the broken
wells.
"Youths
can go very fast with new technology," Ly added. "Those who work as
tour guides, they can be very successful. The older generation of tour guides
work with agencies, if agencies don't call, they have no money. But the young
ones, they have their own business on the Internet."
Inspiring
others by example
Ly, who
was recognized as a CNN Hero in 2010, is in Singapore to speak at
Microsoft's firstInnovate4Good summit, where youths around the world
gather to discuss issues and collaborate on ideas for social change.
The
Singapore leg takes place Apr. 28 to 29 with about 100 youths from different
backgrounds all over the Asian region. The inaugural global event, which kicked
off Mar. 31 this year, covers 6 cities. It started in Redmond, followed by
Cairo, and the next three stops will be Beijing, Brussels and Mexico City.
Microsoft's
Deevy said she hopes that Ly, along with two other speakers--Efren Geronimo
Peñaflorida Jr. from Dynamic Teen Company in the Philippines and Heather
Mansfield from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 in the United States--will inspire the event
attendees worldwide with their stories of having made a difference themselves
and how technology helped create a positive impact.
"Every
person now has the ability, through technology, to have a voice that is
effectively global," she said.
Deevy
explained that Microsoft decided to start Innovate4Good because from looking at
the corporate social responsibility (CSR) work it did in supporting underserved
communities and the changes happening in the world, it noticed a growing
opportunity divide.
"If
you missed the opportunity at the beginning, it can impact the rest of your
life. If you didn't complete primary school or high school, if you didn't have
access to Internet to technology, it puts you on a completely different
path."
She
pointed out that providing people access to technology can
"completely change their life" because for those who have never
touched a computer before, learning how to use a computer or having access to
the Internet gives them the confidence to go for a job or set up their own
business.
"It's
the idea that you can take technology and you can work on any social cause,
environment, healthcare or education. It's not just a linear path with
technology that you go on to become a developer or a technologist. There're so
many opportunities that open up," Deevy emphasized.
Sharing
experience, learning from others
Ly
added that besides sharing her experience through Innovate4Good, she hopes to
learn new ideas to share with the people in Cambodia.
"I
really want to help my country grow fast. I can tell you that I'm very jealous
when I see other people's lives, why they're very fancy and Cambodia is very
low. So now when technology can help make people develop fast, I really want to
have that in my country."
The
Ponheary Ly Foundation currently runs four primary schools and six secondary
schools in Cambodia, serving about 2,500 children, with another 500 on the
waiting list. The project is constantly looking for donations of computers, as
only one of the primary school has a lab with 15 computers.
It is
important that at least the primary schools all have computers so that the
students acquire basic education levels if they drop out due to family work or
lack the transportation means to get to secondary schools which are 5 to 10km
away from the villages they live, Ly said.
"If
we could have 1,000 laptops, we can put computer labs in all the schools we
have, and I hope our students can get high education and develop their village.
I don't think they can [achieve] the same level as [students] in Singapore but
at least the same as the children in town," she said.
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