Mozambican President Opens New Community Multimedia Centre in Chokwe: UNESCO-CI

Mozambican President Opens New Community Multimedia Centre in Chokwe: UNESCO-CI: "Mozambican President Opens New Community Multimedia Centre in Chokwe
27-05-2005 (UNESCO)
President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique will cut the ribbon at the new Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) in Chokwe later today, 27 May, as part of UNESCO�s CMC scale up initiative for 20 such centres across the country, combining community radio and telecentre facilities. Also present at the opening ceremony will be the head of the UNESCO Maputo office, Mr Benoit Sossou.
UNESCO and the Informatics Centre of Eduardo Mondlane University (CIUEM), Maputo, are implementing the scale-up in Mozambique with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). There were initially three pilot CMCs Mozambique, in Mani�ha, Namaacha and Dondo. The Chokwe CMC is the second site of the scale-up initiative to open its doors this month. The Xinavane CMC was opened on 9 Mai 2005. On June1st, the third new CMC will be inaugurated in Moamba in the presence of the Governor of Maputo Province. The next three sites to open their doors to the public will be in Ribau� Chiure and Alto Mol�cu�.

The CMC scale-up initiative is taking place in Mozambique, Mali and Senegal and was launched during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003. The initiative, aims to move beyond isolated pilot projects to lay the basis for national networks of community-based centres that place the tools of information and communication technologies in the hands of the poor and marginalized communities. "