Published in the Association for Progressive Communications News, this article describes the
effects of introducing telecentres in the Amazon region in the northern Brazilian state of Pará.



Caetano Scannavino,
coordinator of the Saúde e Alegria (Health and Happiness) Project, is quoted as observing unexpected results:
"In the beginning, we feared that the telecentres would open up such a new world
for these communities that they would absorb - or suffocate - all the
traditional culture of these populations. "However, he notes "
Instead of weakening traditional knowledge, the opposite has happened:
members of the communities ... have succeeded in better identifying who there are. They now want to
launch community sites to present their reality to the world."



The author provides an overview of the programme, in which Saúde e Alegria partners with the Third Sector Information Network
to introduce telecentres and provide increased wireless coverage throughout the area.
This programme uses the groundwork provided by the federal government's E-Governance Citizen Support Service (Gesac) project, but
builds on that work by creating new telecentres and introducing wi-fi technologies to expand coverage from existing telecentres
to other communities.



This article describes some of the challenges faced in setting up these systems, and the solutions
developed to solve them. Advantages of the new system are described, including exposure to cultural materials
from outside the area and access to vital medical information. One case history
is described in detail, in which the internet provided access to the latest
snake bite information after a local girl was bitten.



The local communities are said to be enthusiastic about access to both computers and the internet. Communities
neighbouring the telecentres are also described as curious, with financing cited
as the primary challenge to expansion.