NGOs adopt low-cost desktops

Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2008

Virtual desktop manufacturer NComputing reports non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fighting to narrow the digital divide are increasingly adopting its solutions for projects in emerging countries.

NComputing virtual desktops sell for as little as $70 a seat.

"The company has already deployed successful partnerships with such leading NGOs such as the US-based Save the Children, France's Ateliers Sans Frontieres, BRAC in Bangladesh and India's Azim Premji Foundation, to name just a few," says NComputing chairman and CEO Stephen Dukker.

The California-based company is also working with intergovernmental organisations such as Unesco and the Organisation of American States (OAS).

"Almost one billion users around the world, who would benefit from access to computing, have been unable to afford it - until now," says Dukker. "It is only by fundamentally changing the economics of computing that our industry can bridge the digital divide," he adds.

Dukker says the impact of NGO-NComputing projects is already being felt around the world.

Ateliers Sans Frontieres (Workshops Without Borders), with financial assistance from the Digital Solidarity Fund, has deployed virtual desktops to benefit farmers in Francophone Africa.

In Ghana, the One Village Foundation is working with universities to create ICT centres in rural villages.

In Somalia, Unesco is deploying NComputing-based systems for university students.

Looking elsewhere

In Latin America, the OAS recently deployed NComputing systems for job training and computer skills in community centres in 10 Latin American countries. Save the Children installed the solution at a youth centre in El Alto, a fast-growing suburb of La Paz, Bolivia, for job training and after-school programmes.

In Bangladesh, NComputing, chipmaker AMD and BRAC - one of the world's largest NGOs - are deploying learning labs as part of AMD's 50x15 Initiative. The global programme aims to provide computing capabilities and Internet connectivity to 50% of the world's population by 2015.

"Our goal is to provide PCs to 1 000 libraries and 15 000 non-formal primary schools all over Bangladesh," says BRAC BDMail Network chairman Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury.