"Bridging the Digital Divide"

Founded in 1997, "Future 21st Century Foundation"'s mission is to support young Bulgarian talents. As the Information Technology, Internet and Communications attract more and more young people, it is essential to treat the issue of technology accessibility, as the gap between technologically advanced and less developed countries widens.

Foundation's response to these problems was creation of the "Bridging the Digital Divide" Program, which consists of the following modules:

• Attracting donations of used computers, printers, scanners etc., granted by companies and institutions from developed countries. These computers are being tested and distributed among schools, universities, kindergardens, hospitals and other public or social institutions.
• Providing Internet access for schools by using the resource of Internet cafe and donations from ISPs. More and more internet cafe agree to grant free access for schools in morning daytime hours for educational purposes. An important aspect of Foundation activities is consulting and technological help for schools and social institutions.
• Software installation, provision of licensed software (by agreement with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technologies), promotion of open-source software (i.e. Linux,Open Office) and development of digital classes and lessons.
• Professional education in the area of Information Technologies, including Computer Networks (CCNA), Programming (Java), Computer Hardware (IT Essentials), Network Operating Systems (UNIX) and many more. Special training for teachers, socially and physically impaired persons.
• Ecological activities that will help recycle useless computers, peripheral devices and other technological products.
• Treat psychological problems, connected with the Internet - addiction, violence display, pornography and other negative aspects of technological influences.
• Establishment of Metropolitan Education Intranets. Cisco Networking Academy students design and implement local area networks for schools, which will be interconnected in the next phase of the project, thus forming the backbone of the future city-wide educational network.

We've succeeded to attract support from members of the Bulgarian Parlament, Municipality of Plovdiv city, schools, companies, media representatives and NGOs.

This program was successful in attracting more than 700 PCs from US and German companies (CMI Terex Co, GAS International Co, Atlas Werhausen and others), which we have tested, assembled, repaired and distributed among many Bulgarian schools. Only the last grant – 380 PCs and printers allowed to create more computer classes than all Bulgarian governments since 1989 altogether.

In more than 30 classes in Plovdiv, Dimovo, Brezovo, Jardjilovci, Sofia,in kindergardens, primary and secondary schools and universities, thousands of pupils and students have access to IT education.

More than 4 schools that did not have computer classrooms were able to carry out multimedia and Internet education thanks to the free access to Internet cafes, granted by the Foundation.

Classes for physically impaired and disabled people take place in Foundation's Cisco Networking Academy. This will give them the opportunity to become an integral part of the society by being able to work and communicate.

A Counsil for IT Education has been formed in Plovdiv city in order to develop the first Metropolitan Educational Network, interconnecting local public schools.

We can assure all companies that are willing to donate their used PCs that this will have:

• a good ecological impact. Vast amounts of resources are being invested to create these technological products, and a great deal of those resurces will be required to recycle those computers.
• fair reapportionment - developed countries usually suffer from lack of qualified and skilled IT professionals. This is compensated by attracting specialist from less developed countries.
• social, fiscal, political and other benefits.

We are looking for partnerships with companies, corporations, institutions and organizations that are willing to participate in the program or would like to collaborate and develop common projects with "Future 21st Century Foundation".