Spear distributes computers to N.G.O.?s

The Society for the Promotion of Education and Research, SPEAR, has teamed up with the Virginia based “For Children Incorporated,” to undertake a program of assistance to local Non-Governmental Organizations. Under the program, says SPEAR’s Support Director Dean Roches, used computers are re-built in the states and sent down to Belize fully equipped. After initial contact and discussions last December in Mexico, the first shipment of ten computers arrived last month and went faster than hot johnny cakes at tea-time. As the program now shifts to the second phase, Roches says that it’s a not-for-profit venture which should go a long way.

Dean Roches, Support Director, SPEAR

“We’re doing it in stages. Our emphasis right now is on N.G.O.’s in networks. N.G.O.’s that are members of networks and so we started with ANDA being a small network of about six N.G.O.’s. We started with ANDA to test the project to see how it will work … They have different needs. If one is not computer literate these days its like you’re functionally illiterate. And so they are using it for basic word processing, some will be doing their accounts on the computer. General office use.”

While SPEAR has taken the first step in getting some N.G.O.’s up to speed with technological advances, Roches says the groups that benefit from the program will have to bear the cost of acquiring software and training. The next shipment of twenty computers is scheduled for delivery in April. They will be given to another N.G.O. umbrella group, C.V.S.S.