Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Cyber-Indians

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 11 2003 (IPS) - Several groups of Brazilian Indians are beginning to use the Internet, thanks to the Peoples of the Forest Network, a project of the non-governmental Committee for the Democratization of Information Technologies (CDI) Two villages of the indigenous Ashaninka and Yawanawa communities, in the Amazonian state of Acre, in the northwest, and one in Angra dos Reis, 150 km from Rio de Janeiro, last month received five computers each and fast Internet connection via satellite, with technology from the StarOne firm.

“It is a positive tool in favor of the indigenous peoples, facilitating access to information and communication with public agencies and among the villages,” Gunter Francisco Loebens, coordinator of the Catholic Church's indigenous mission in the Amazon, told Tierramérica.

CDI has received international awards for its efforts to bring “connectivity” to indigenous peoples.