Former Brazil slave village leaps into digital age, by Terry Wade

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Nestled in a narrow tropical valley 180 miles southwest of South America’s largest city of Sao Paulo, the village lacks phone lines and other basic services. Some of its 300 residents still live in homes made of sticks and mud.
But a government experiment is sweeping Ivaporunduva into the digital age. As part of a larger plan to fight rural poverty, the government has installed a satellite-based Internet connection that is ending years of isolation for the village.
Residents can make doctor’s appointments online, find new markets to sell fruit and download school lesson plans.
In one of the biggest experiments ever in a growing field that uses information technology to alleviate poverty in developing countries, Brazil’s government installed satellite Internet in 3,200 other rural communities over the last two years.
Story found here.

Source: Reuters