Those persons who use the facilities of the St. Elizabeth Resource Centre in St. Joseph, are now better equipped to surf the Internet and gain information, thanks to the ‘Connect Barbados’ Project.
Minister of Social Transformation, Trevor Prescod, was recently presented with two additional computers with Broadband Internet Service from Cable & Wireless (B’dos) for the Centre as part of the Project.
The initiative, which was launched in June of this year, has as its mission the provision of free internet service to several community centres, libraries and children’s homes across Barbados. Some $ 200, 000.00 has been earmarked for the project.
According to President and Chief Executive Officer of Cable and Wireless, Donald Austin, “it is a collaborative effort involving government agencies, with the shared vision of ensuring the continued introduction of cutting edge services to the community, providing wider access to the world wide web and in so doing further enable Barbados to compete on an international scale”.
In his acceptance speech, Minister Prescod, said, “it gives me great pleasure… on this important occasion which witnesses a watershed in Barbados’ quest to become a full member of the information society. The watershed of which I speak has two dimensions, the upgrading of access to the internet at the community level, and the strengthening of cooperative ties between the public and private sectors in an area that is critical to the sustainable development of Barbados, that of bridging the digital divide.”
To date, ‘Connect Barbados’ has been introduced at the Nightengale Children’s Home and the Sayes Court Home, but the St. Elizabeth Centre is the first resource centre in the Project to receive broadband internet ready computers. The service gives users the ability to surf the internet, using the Junior Cyber Club package, which prevents access to content that is deemed unsuitable.