PHILIPPINES: Trikes spread telecommunications

Five young Filipino graduates are building the country's first self-contained and wireless-enabled mobile telecentres using the national mode of transport - the three-wheeled motorcycle called a Trike.

The graduates have designed a new and innovative way of delivering ICT learning, combined with a sustainable model, to Manila's urban communities that typically have no access to these services.

The eTrike they constructed is a fully self-contained mobile wireless telecentre which provides young people with access to new digital ICT technologies, basic computer lessons and an introduction to the internet.

Those taking part pay a small fee for the service while the graduates sustain the business by offering a variety of paid services such as cell phone repairs, internet access and recharge services.

Seed funded by theYouth Social Enterprise Initiative, a social venture capital group(www.YSEI.org), the eTrike's mobile unit carries three laptop computers, a mobile cell phone repair unit, a digital camera, three cell phones and a printer.

The internet is provided via a wireless connection while electricity is supplied from an on-board generator. Colleges and schools are contacted by the mobile telecentres team to schedule training which is carried out on-campus, usually lasting a full day.

Once the pilot programme has been completed over the next six months, the five graduates plan to expand their fleet of eTrikes into other needy areas of Manila and further afield in other provinces across the Philippines. They hope to expand the business to incorporate e-Jeepneys - based on the Jeep-like Filipino car -and eventually an e-Ship.

"We envision that through on-site training, our student recipients will become competent and literate in the job and business opportunities that ICT's represent," said team leader Christine Lopez. "Our vision is to help empower Filipino youth to become independent and productive citizens of the Philippines."