The real power of the PC Video

The real power of the PC Video Transcript

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>> I'm Ina Fried with CNET News.com here in Sao Pablo, Brazil. I'm here with Rodrigo Baggio who is the founder and head of CDI, a group that brings training and information and democracy to low-income neighborhoods by bringing them technology and having them work on projects to improve their own community. I wanted Rodrigo to talk a little bit about a project when they took their things from the main parts of Brazil and brought it into one of the indigenous communities.

>> In the last 13 years, CDI started 753 CDI Schools in low-income area in 20 Brazilian states and 10 countries. More than 1 million people have been trained in technology and civic engagement education through CDI Schools. One -- part of our CDI Schools are inside the indigenous village. We started the first CDI School for indigenous village in 1998 and in the Guarani Village. And one day, the chief of the indigenous village called me and talked, "Rodrigo, we would like to call -- we don't want you call computer as a computer." And I talked with him, "Why do you guys don't create a new name for computer in Guarani?" And he decided to invite the Shaman and the young indigenous to create a new name for computer in Guarani. Computer in Guarani is ayu ryrurive. And ayu ryrurive means knowledge box. Mouse: Anguja. Windows: Oventan. I tell two years ago, this history in Davos with Bill Gates in the coffee break and he was so excited. Oh, we need to launch the Windows XP, doing shirts called Oventan XP, so it's through marketing. Then...

>> But you've had an impact beyond, not only are they making t-shirts, but I understand that Microsoft is following your lead in bringing Windows and Office into that same indigenous language.

>> Yes, with amazing experience and amazing initiative. So I have very good partnership with Microsoft starting 1998 and these Microsoft initiatives were great because this indigenous group could use better their computer and the software in their idiom.

>> And I understand even though you're in 10 countries around Latin America, it's not enough for you. What else do you have on your plans?

>> One of our dreams is connect all of our CDI Schools in the Internet. So we are going through the CDI 2.0, a collaborative community that will stimulate all of our CDI schools exchange their best practices, good or bad initiatives to give a really amazing social and collaborative community.

>> One of the things that CDI does, it's not just about creating a computer lab for people to check their email, what are some of the things that people have done after going through your school?

>> In the CDI School, our goal is graduate change makers. So we stimulate local people do something to change their reality, we empower them, we stimulate them, stop to wait for god or government do things. We stimulate them do things and then god will help them. So in our schools they create many things like health centers, policemen centers in their community, clean rivers, clean lakes. So they are doing amazing work through this process, through this methodology. And this is really very important to stimulate this community -- change makers using technology as a citizen's right weapon to improve their lives and change their low-income communities.

>> You told me about one specific example early on in CDI's history where a small group of young people made a difference. Could you tell that story?

>> Yes. In one northeast region state in Brazil, in a very poor community, one CDI School and our students come to the community realized about their big challenger is a river inside the community and this river had crabs. And people from the community put garbage inside this river. So the crabs disappeared and they have many problems with disease. A group of 10 young people in the CDI School selected this as their challenger and they started to learn how to use the Word and they did a folder and they created awareness in the community to stop to put garbage inside the river. And they are learning about PowerPoint doing some speech in the community to stimulate local people to stop to put garbage inside the river. And after 4 months, 100% of people from the community stopped to put garbage inside the river. And today, the crabs comes back again, so 10 young people impact their ecosystem through the good use of technology. ^M00:05:20 [ Music ]