SAN MARINO NEWS
Following an independent research trip to Eastern Africa last summer, Taylor Mork, a 2000 graduate of San Marino High School, recently organized an international team to propose the implementation of an Internet center in Iganga, Uganda and to increase awareness of the communications problems faced throughout the developing world.
The centerpiece of this effort is his ‘DevelopNet Iganga’ project, which aims to increase the effectiveness of community-service organizations in Iganga through improved Internet access.
Currently, Taylor is a senior at New York University, pursuing an individualized degree in International Development Studies and working to finance DevelopNet through grants and private donors.
Leading up to the project’s conception, Taylor spent the spring 2003 semester with the School of International Training in Geneva, Switzerland.
There, he met representatives of a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO) who afforded him the opportunity to volunteer and perform research the following summer in Iganga. After raising money for his trip with the generous support of former Congressman James E. Rogan and colleagues from past internships in New York, Taylor traveled throughout Uganda to research NGO management issues – taking a short break to volunteer for President Bush’s visit to the country one week.
At the same time, he volunteered with NGOs working in fields such as water management, farming, medical services, aid to the elderly, and women and children’s rights, among others.
His research’s most important conclusion was that these development organizations and the general public sorely need better access to the Internet if their goals are ever to be achieved.
Since then, Taylor has brought together the Iganga District NGO Forum, La Federazione delle ONG della Svizzera Italiana – a federation of international NGOs in Southern Switzerland – the School of International Training in Geneva, and several American college students.
Collectively, these organizations and individuals hope to provide the Iganga community with the benefits of Information Communications Technology (ICT) through a project that will further aim to be replicated in other parts of Uganda and possibly throughout Africa and the developing world.
As a district with almost no availability to the Internet and home to 1.2 million people and nearly 200 community development organizations, Iganga exemplifies the need for such a project. An overly expensive, wireless, dialup service (whose speed is only 14.4k, whereas 56k is normal for dialup in the U.S.) is available to the two or three organizations that can afford it, while others must travel between 30 and 70 miles to the nearest public Internet cafés.
Lacking the proper research and communications opportunities, Iganga’s development organizations often find themselves unable to locate the needed funding and technical assistance for their projects.
If fully funded, Taylor’s DevelopNet project will rectify this informational and technological gap by opening a self-sustaining research facility where local NGOs and the general public will come to access and learn how to use computers and the Internet to their benefit. The NGO facility will house computers continuously connected to high-speed Internet, a paper and electronic resource library and a meeting place for exchanging ideas and experiences among development colleagues.
Others in the community will be able to use computers in a separate Internet café that will provide sustainability and expansion funding to the center and to the Iganga NGO Forum.
Any persons, businesses or organizations interested in learning more about the DevelopNet project or about the wider goals of the awareness campaign are encouraged to visit the DevelopNet Iganga website or contact Taylor Mork directly.
In addition, it should be noted that any donors to the project will be invited to experience their contributions first-hand, either by visiting to help or observe project implementation, or by simply traveling to Iganga, Uganda, and East Africa to experience the hospitality, culture and beauty that surround.