Melanie Edwards
USA
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Bringing the Internet to Refugees
We all have our epiphanies in life. Mine happened in Landmark’s Self- Expression and Leadership Program.
After many years of climbing the corporate high-tech ladder, I began feeling dissatisfied with my career. Although very successful and well recognized for my achievements, something was missing. My motivation was waning and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I decided to enroll in Landmark’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program, expecting to jump-start my same engine. What in fact happened was I discovered my true passions then realigned my career to encompass the very things that inspire me most.
I clearly realized during the program that one of my all time passions is travel, particularly to different cultures. Having traveled extensively – as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa or as a backpacker on the Tran Siberian railroad through the former USSR - I grew to love developing countries and particularly the people. However, communication with those I came to love along the way was often difficult upon return, given unreliable and rare postal service. I would often catch myself wishing in recent years, “if only they had the internet.” Through Landmark’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program the light-bulb went on: Why not bring the internet to the developing world, and use my high-tech background and connections to make this difference.
Within a month of brainstorming the idea, I ran into someone working for the U.S. State Department who had similar ideas. The two of us began incubating what later became the Global Technology Corps – a sort of “digital Peace Corps” designed to bring American technologists and their expertise to bear on the needs of developing countries.
Early on we spearheaded a challenging and groundbreaking project, to connect the Kosovo refugee settlements to the internet. My colleague worked the governmental angle and got all the necessary international government approvals. I, along with a team of corporate colleagues, worked to mobilize high-tech resources – funding, equipment and their technologists’ time.
Within two months we had seven internet centers set up in six countries – Poland, Albania, and Macedonia, to name a few – where the refugees pouring out of Kosovo could go, connect, and try to find family members. In many settlements, the internet centers were just a trailer which housed computers and a satellite link. Refugees would line up, assisted by someone who knew how to use the internet. More than 200 families that we know of were eventually reunited through this system.
In addition to reconnecting families, these makeshift centers also provided a direct line for people to tell their first-person stories via the internet, shedding a much-needed light on the overall situation there. Canon, Inc., for example, had given us a lot of digital duplicators, which produced thousands and thousands of copies of a ‘daily newsletter’ in a very short time. These were then distributed to refugees in the settlements, giving them necessary logistical information and updating them on the situation in their homeland.
As the Global Technology Corps developed, companies such as HP, IBM, Cisco, and Apple became established partners. A year later, the United Nations asked me to assist in crafting a similar program for international technologists.
As a result of our success with these projects, I’m currently at Stanford University on a “Digital Vision” fellowship. The program creates innovative solutions to extend information and communication into underserved areas of developing countries. My current project is using mobile devices to reach remote areas of Brazil.
The Self-Expression and Leadership Program provided the spark, inspiration and courage to launch myself on this path. Today, my passion and expertise travel together as one.
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