The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Goa Computers for Schools Project (GSCP) - India

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This community-based project promotes the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Goa schools in an effort to improve the levels of computer literacy and computer access of secondary-school students in Goa. Goa Computers for Schools Project (GSCP) also trains teachers to use ICTs and enables after-hours use of the computer facilities by adults in the community for email access, information, and IT entrepreneurship development.

GSCP hopes to enable all secondary schools to obtain a lab of at least 8 internet-ready computers with the help of the government, industry, and community volunteers. The Linux operating system is used in an effort to reduce costs.
Communication Strategies
The project methodology is as follows:
  1. Conduct survey to determine extent of ICT penetration in schools
  2. Enter into arrangement with State Education Department to ensure duty waiver
  3. Identify schools
  4. Determine lab infrastructure and software
  5. Arrange teacher training and curriculum development
  6. Source and ship computers
  7. Refurbish and maintain the equipment
  8. Encourage after-hours community access
 One example of an initiative undertaken at Sangolda, Goa involves the installation of a PC that was simply turned on (no instruction was provided). Children from migrant labourer families, who lived in small one-room shacks with no running water and few electrical connections and who attended school only rarely, used the facility. Programme organisers claim that the children were able to begin understanding the basics of computing almost intuitively without a computer curriculum whereby they were "taught" applications.
Development Issues
Technology, Children, Youth, Education.
Key Points
The Goa Chamber of Commerce claims that India has a high drop-out rate at the secondary school level.

To date, the Goa government has provided about 750 PC's to to Goa's 350 secondary schools, thus enabling every school in Goa to have at least 1 PC. GSCP has provided 100 schools with 450 recycled PCs, which has reduced the PC-to-student ratio to 1:60.

The project is run under the auspicies of Goa Sudharop Community Development, a US-based non-profit organisation.
Partners

Goa Sudharop Community Development, World Computer Exchange, America India Foundation.

Sources

GCSP site.