Romantic

Wi-fi for Roma

July 19th, 2007 by Olia Yatskevich

NOTE: The following post is written by R.N.

No one has ever heard about the village called Tomor except for the people who live in the neighborhood. Still, this small village in Northern-Hungary got into the news. A foundation decided to help the villagers, mostly unemployed and poorly educated, to break out of the segregation: it gives them free wi-fi and used, cheap computers. They say that it helps them for instance to finish their studies, obtain a profession, and then, to find a job.

Not only in this area is segregation widespread. Roma pupils (and in Tomor most of villagers are Roma) got often into segregated schools where everything is worse, and only a few manage to finish their studies. This was one reason why the foundation called Rom Som decided to help them. Now it operates community centers in six villages where the villagers can study or simply browse on the web.

Nevertheless, they started another project in Tomor. With the help of some companies, computers are available for the villagers at a cheap price – around 80 euros, which reminds on the 100-dollar-laptop project of Nicholas Negroponte that inspired the Hungarian initiative as well. Monthly payments are also possible. And beside the computers, free wi-fi covers the whole village.

The foundation says, if the program works, they will continue it in other villages, and then, they may also extend the program abroad. One thing is sure so far: the people in Tomor are enthusiastic.

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