VIA pc-1 ICT Training Center Changing Lives in Rural Vietnam

- by Zenda Nel

The very nature and content of the first training course for trainers at the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF) in Northern Vietnam says it all: how to guide people in installing software, identifying and troubleshooting some of the more regular computer errors and how to work with some of the more commonly used applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Internet Explorer.

While most of us in the developed world have long since forgotten our first introduction to computers and we marvel at young kids typing away with no apparent need for training, and even elderly people have taken to the mean machine, people in rural Vietnam are only now being introduced to computers.

Located in the poorer northern mountainous area of Vietnam, TUAF is strategically important as a learning center in the region.  The primary aim of the VIA pc-1 Training Center is the training of students and faculty at the university in ICT skills, but its influence is bound to reverberate far into the surrounding communities, changing lives and saving lives. It points to the human side of technology, combining business ingenuity with corporate responsibility and altruism.

"It is our aim that the VIA pc-1 ICT Center will become a blueprint for ICT education and community development in Vietnam and far beyond," says Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc.

To understand the potential life-changing impact of an ICT training centre in a place like rural Vietnam we need to remind ourselves of the realities of rural life in this Southeast Asia country. According to the Asia-Pacific Development Information Program 75% of Vietnam's 80 million people live in rural areas. Ownership of computers is expressed as 1.17 per 100 inhabitants. Their accommodation would shock most of us: houses with straw roofs and dirt floors. Many have no windows, just openings with no panes or shutters. In the rainy season, these dwellings offer little or no protection from the elements. Most people have no electricity, no safe drinking water, and a steady diet of rice. These harsh conditions are the reality of life in rural Vietnam.

Creating a website with life-saving information for these people would be like rushing an empty ambulance to a road accident. People are dying while the sirens blare.

One needs only to look at the UNICEF priorities for Vietnam, to grasp the serious need for information and training:

• provision of safe, clean water
• prevention of malnutrition (which continues to affect a third of children under the age of five)
• treatment of common childhood diseases
• environmental and sanitation program

As recently as January 17, 2007 UNICEF posted a report by Steve Nettleton on their website, describing the lack of knowledge regarding basic hygiene in remote areas and celebrating the construction of toilets at a school.

Statistics from United Nations Development Program (UNDP) show that 80% of human illness in rural Vietnam is caused by water-borne disease or pollution. Also reported was that 46% of the country's 70 million people do not have clean water- this amounts to nearly 32 million individuals. 

The long and short of the situation is: people don't only need clean water and a clean environment (which is not going to happen overnight); they also need access to information on how to deal with reality as it is now. 

The UNICEF Office in Vietnam launched the first bilingual website – in English and Vietnamese in December 2004. The site focuses on the rapid change in the country. It highlights the many child survival issues that still affect children in Vietnam, such as access to clean water and the importance of immunization as well as new challenges that are emerging, such as HIV/AIDS and child protection.

Collaboration

The VIA pc-1 ICT Center was set up in collaboration with Cornell University in the USA as part of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) program initiated by the APEC Digital Opportunity Center group.

Dr. Royal Colle, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University highlighted the vital link between the need of rural communities for information and universities as information suppliers: "TUAF is taking a major step to demonstrate to international agencies and to other countries how higher education can play a vital role in bringing information and communication services to rural populations. Up to now, most information technology projects have overlooked or ignored educational institutions as partners. In supporting this initiative, VIA and the ADOC program have given a vote of confidence to the idea that universities – as society's key knowledge institutions – can make computers, networks, and data relevant and beneficial to many thousands of people in the Northern Mountainous Area."

VIA's flexible and extremely power-efficient pc-1 systems are the emergency instruments that, in the long run, will save lives in rural Vietnam.