Bridging the Digital Divide
Many people go to the western countries and turn their back on their home countries. Some after many years think of that place that they once called home and decide that it is time to give to the place that molded them into the person that they have become. The students in the urban areas of many African countries are already computer literate but it is another story for those in rural areas. Seth Owusu wants to change the perception that rural schools are inferior to urban schools and award the students in rural schools with the same opportunities as the others.
Owusu’s organization is Entire Village Computers Organization (EVCO), a Washington-based charitable organization that donates reconditioned old computers and accessories. The motto of their organization is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson “If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”
Owusu’s vision was inspired by missionaries who travelled to his village to help his people and in turn he has devoted his life to helping those in remote villages thousands of miles from his Washington home.
In Owusu’s own words
If we want to change the world we have to start by changing the people who are going to be the world tomorrow, who are the kids. So any seed we sow today are what’s going to bloom tomorrow to shape our world and make a better world, so anything that you can do, regardless of how little it is, goes toward making the world a better place.
In the words of Alvin Toffler, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”