Focolare Movement

Brazil – Aiming at overcoming the technological gap

Apr 18, 2007

A national network, promoting re-investment in computers, was inaugurated by the President at the Afago Centre, a social work run by the Focolare in Brazilia.

The project consists in recuperating computers dismissed by public and private bodies, in order to distribute them to schools, libraries and other institutions that do not have the means of purchasing new ones. In order to carry out this project, the Economic Development Minister and the Bank of Brazil Foundation elected Afago Centre as partner, for its seriousness in the job carried out in favour of the less well-to-do persons. Objective: overcoming of the technological gap – President Luiz Inacio Lula, at the inauguration of the Centre, underlined that the access to knowledge permits the reduction of social differences: “It is cheaper to build schools, than prisons,” he affirmed, while committing himself to equip all public schools with a broad band internet connection by the end of 2010. Present at the inauguration, besides President Lula and his wife, there was also tbe Minister of Economic Development, Paulo Bernardo, the Governor of the Bank of Brazil, Jacques Penna, the Federal District President of Brazilia, members of the federal government, aside from journalists of the most important Brazilian newspapers and TV networks. During the visit at the Afago Centre, President Lula spent some time with various young volunteers of the Centre, some of whom have been helped since infancy by “support at a distance,” carried out by Afago Centre in collaboration with New Families. “While conversing with R. for some minutes – Lula said – I understood that he will always be a man with a great soul, ready to help others because he has learnt to do so since childhood, thanks his insertion into a community.” What is the Afago Centre? – In 1990’s, while facing the serious situation of the street children, and with the concurrence of the launching of the “Adoptions at a distance” by the New Families, also known as the “Support at a distance,” the Afago-Df association was constituted. Presently, this association helps 220 children and adolescents, with ages varying from 4 to 14 years, who attend regularly the Centre and can make use of the canteen, and runs activities in education, computer science and sports.

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