Country :
Sao Tome and Principe

   
Population :
The two islands have a young
population of 140 000 inhabitants with most of its people living in the Island of Sao Tomé.
 
     
Economy : The country main exports are cocoa ,coffe and coconut . The tourism is now seen as possible alternative though there is a serious involvement for the oil production .
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 
 

São Tome e Príncipe

  
   

INTERNET 4 ALL 

Description

The "Internet for all " project is an yearly program created by Bahnhof.st Sao Tome with the aim to increase the
Internet literary in all the comunities in Sao Tome and Principe.
We do that by bringing every year the students from all the districts of Sao Tome to our  training facility
with more than 20 computers in the capital of the country.
In futur we will seek for partners to boost the movement of bringing the Internet for all in Sao Tome and Principe.
Bahnhof.st is present with Internet in Sao Tome and Principe since the year 2000 when we have setup the first
Internet Research Center at high school of Sao Tome and also we are still the only organization that provides a
public facility with the Internet access for people in the Island of Principe.
This facility has 10 computers and serves the entire population of that Island since the year 2000.
We have also an hotspot for wireless Internet.
 

Objectives


-Give the children from  all the communities in Sao Tome and Principe the equal access to learn the Internet.
-Increase the students IT literacy in Sao Tome and Principe
-Involving the managers of the schools and the students on the benefits of the Internet .
-Promoting the use of the Internet by giving  free access to every body during a period of 30 days.
-Training the Internet concepts to the students of all the secondary schools of Sao Tome and Principe.
-Assistance to the general public on how to use the Internet.
-The benefits of Wireless Internet in Sao Tome and Principe.
-The benefits of VOIP system to the rural communities in Sao Tome and Principe.
-Requirements for the VOIP.

History :
 2004
See the students page at:

www.trindade.st
www.guadalupe.st
www.pontamina.st
www.liceu.st
 

The Program in - 2006

Date :
 From 22 August 2006  to  25 October 2006

Funded and promoted by :
 Bahnhof.st Internet  Lda ,Sao Tome

Other sponsors :

Government of Sao Tome and Principe helped with the transport of students from many locations.
Bahnhof AB Sweden helped with equipments and training.
USAID helped with the training of the two project managers in the USA and also has designed a possible Wireless solution for the entire Island of Sao Tome and Principe.
Cisco Networks,San Jose CA  that helped with the training of the two Project Managers  and books.
AMD - Helped with a Personal Internet Comunicator which is very a stable and strong machine for dust environment.
STPSoft - A Local company that helps with the trainers and the program for the Project.
 

     
 

The most attractive gadget during our
training session was the AMD Personal
Internet communicator.

  
   

Program Content

The training program for the students includes .

-What is the Internet.
-How to use the Internet
-How to use the search engine.
-The benefits of Internet for education and business in Sao Tome.

Special training session
-Web Design
-Wireless
-Photoshop
-VOIP

Duration
Sao Tome Island
From 22nd August  to 19th September 2006

Total Participants
  - More than 600 people with 70% of them been students.

Principe Island
From 27th September to 25th October 2006

Total Participants expected
  -400 people


Goal

-Promote the use of the internet in Sao Tome and Principe
-To narrow the gap of the internet access between the people living at rural areas
 and the people from the urban areas of Sao Tome and Principe.
-To help the students with the research .

Future goal
Creating an Internet training center with at least 10 Pcs in all the 5 districts of Sao Tome and Principe.
Connecting all the secondary schools of Sao Tome and Principe and bring the Internet to the communities.

Development

The "Internet for all" project was first implemented in 2004 by Bahnhof.st Lda and the goal is to bring the Internet concept and usage to  all the local comunities in S.Tome and Príncipe.
In 2004 we have managed to train more than 600 people around the Island of Sao Tome and Príncipe .
You can visit a page then created by the students of a rural area of Sao Tome at the following site www.guadalupe.st


22 August 2006 - "Internet 4 all - Island of São Tomé"

With average of more than 100 people per day our training center is the only facility in Sao Tome and Principe where people can learn and have free access to Internet.
Each  secondary school send 40 students that  attends  3 hours class during a period of 4 to 5 days.The students have two buses that transports them to and from their community to our training Center . We give them small snacks as most of them dont take breakfast or can not afford to have it.
 

     
 

The interval between two classes our trainers open special session for all the people interested to learn Internet. At that time we  have line of people waiting for their turn in order to have access to a computer and learn the Internet.

  
 

 


 

The opening ceremony of the
program  was covered by the
local media and  street adverts.
 		 Our training facility has 25 computers
with free access to Internet and
12 trainers to give assistance
to the students.
Mrs Noémia as the representative
for the UNICEF addressing
the young students

 

   

 

   

   

The training center was built in the city of Sao Tome  with capacity to accomodate 60 students. For the opening ceremony we
brought students  from different
part of the Island.		 As the leader of the program
Aguinaldo Salvaterra addressing
the students.		 The program has two buses to transport the students from Rural areas to the training Center.

 

A male student from the City of Neves located about 30km from the city of Sao Tome. A girl student daughter of a fisherman from Neves one of the poorest city of Sao Tome. A student from the city of
Santana located 15km from Sao Tome.		 Andreia is 8 years old and she is the youngest student we have so far.

 

  A training session with our trainers
giving assistance to the students.		  
   


 

19-09-2006 - The end of the Program "Internet for all-2006 São Tomé"
 

  With more than 3000 participants during the period of August 22 to September 19 the closing ceremony for the program in the Island of São Tome was attended by the local and the Portuguese media. The students from all the distrits of Sao Tome gathered for the final ceremony which included receiving their certificates.  
 
 

 

 

The training center built on the city of Sao Tome will be closed for for 1 month for  improvement and maintenance of the public road around it.


The closing ceremony was some kind of social event where every body could exchange their email-addresses.


 

We provided a snack (sandwich and juice)  for more than 500 people including some visiters.

 

 

The students gathered for the final word and good by.

 

Statistics

The program has benefited the students of 6 secondary schools from the Island of Sao Tome and had
several visiters seeking whether to learn the Internet or to have free access to the Internet.
The average age of the participants was 10-15. Though that many of the younger visiters from 5-10
were seeking to play Internet game or to write their names or their stories on the computer to impress their friends
most of the visiters had learn the basics of the Internet.
The most used site during the program was hotmail for the mailing system and the Msn mensanger for the chat.
 

  Number
Number of students 240
Other participants 3300
   
Total participants 3,540

Final word , Aguinaldo Salvaterra

The goal of this program is to provide people from all the differents level of Sao Tome and Principe  society equal opportunity to the basics of the  Information Tecnhology. By doing that I believe that we are empowering them with the necessary tool to be included not just on the digital world but above all on our daily life .

Here is an example :

There was 8 street kids that we in Sao Tome call them "Meninos da Rua". Abandonned by their parents and sheltered by the local Police headquarter. They have been wandering around our training facility for more than a week shy of getting closer because of their status which limit their access to play with other kids and also thinking that the place was only for regular  kids attending the regular schools.
Our team decided to call them in and give each of them a t-shirt with our logo "Internet 4 All". Since that day these kids dont miss our facility a single day. They all have created their email addresses and now you can see them playing freely with all the kids ,exchanging the email address and the gaming sites like one at www.jogos10.com .
As a commitment , we will teach these kids to create their own website and use the domain www.meninospolicia.st .

Regrets

Personally I feel deeply sorry not to be able to have an eight years old boy from the Island of Principe who have been lost in the jungle for more than 9 month and finally have been found alive some where in the middle of the rain forest. Alone with only one dress on, he has managed to survive at the rainiest part of the country eating mainly coconuts and leaves "has he said".
He is at Sao Tome Hospital since he has been found 2 weeks ago and now suffers from social integration problem. He refuses to live with his parents and wants to go back to his house "as he says" . They call him the "Tarzan Boy" . Any one can call the Sao Tome Government to try to help this boy if that story touches you..
Unfortunatly the local people due to the superstition believes  no one has dared to try to find the hidding hole of this infant. I will promisse you to publish this story with more details very soon after I am able to reach the Principe Island for the launch of this program.
The boy is still under treatments at the local hospital and I feared that our local phisicians want be able to full recover this "disgraced" boy...

Excitments.
One toddler of 3-4 years old came to me as the project leader and complaint that people are not allowing her to surf . She said Mr Engineer, people are not allowing me to surf  as if she already knew about the Internet and she wanted to use it . In fact to surf "Navegar in Portuguese" was the common word for every body to use when they want to have access to our computers.
Her words : "Sô ginheiro , genti non qué dexamu navega heim"


The futur event :

 October 2006- replication of this program in the Island of Príncipe.
November 2006 - The opening of Bahnhof.st  IT training Center for the IT people.
We will train the following courses:
   - Routers and routing protocols .
   -The TCP/IP protocol.
   -VOIP
   -Wireless Internet.
Broadcast of a TV program about how to use the Internet
Setup the wireless zone in the Island of Sao Tome
February -2007
Create a training center for students during their holidays in the southern part of Sao Tome.
Replicate the center to Island of Principe.
August 2007-Internet 4 all program.


Coming soon..

"Internet 4 all"  in the Island of Principe


Partnership

We are looking for partnership to empower the people with the IT knowledge to improve their lives.
Please contact us at :
 

General Information ,info@internet4all.st

Project Manager , aguinaldo@bahnhof.st

Technical Manager ,cferreira@bahnhof.st

 

 

 

Bahnhof.st Lda
travessa Joao de Deus
Tel. +239 222 753
Sao Tome and Principe

(R) - 2006


Last updated  22 September 2006