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WiRED can now accept secure online donations via PayPal.
OUR MISSION
To provide medical and healthcare information, education and communications in developing and war-affected regions.
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WiRED International is devoted to providing medical and healthcare information, education and communications resources to communities in developing and post-conflict regions.
Our mission is to ensure equal access to information that saves lives. Every person in every corner of the globe faces the threat of illness and injury, but communities coping with the challenges of war, poverty and dislocation face even greater barriers-they are unable to obtain critical medical and healthcare information. WiRED brings this vital information and technology to communities confronting these challenges, and our commitment demonstrates the goodwill and positive helping spirit of the American people.
The 2007 Annual Report is in development and will be posted in the near future.
Download WiRED International's 2008
Brochure (.pdf file).
Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Honduras, Iraq, Kenya, Kosovo, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Serbia, Sierre Leone
Founded in 1997, today WiRED's technology information centers serve nearly one million people annually, at 76 information centers, located in 11 countries on four continents. Executive director Dr. Gary Selnow began WiRED's work while serving as a Fulbright Fellow at Croatia's University of Zagreb just following the Balkan War. Dr. Selnow was moved by the war's impact the region's children, who were without adequate educational supplies, had little access to even basic computer technologies. Inspired by the idea that access to the Internet could help end the children's isolation and enhance their education, Dr. Selnow launched WiRED with funding from USAID. In addition to helping bridge the information gap, WiRED operates on the philosophy that our Centers - in their development, design and staffing - should help promote reconciliation in communities through local collaboration and equal access.
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2006:
In April 2006, WiRED welcomed two new members to our Board of Directors: Senator William Brock and Mr. Sheldon Cohen, Esq.
WiRED has formed a medical consortium among Children's National Medical Center, the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, and several other American medical facilities. The consortium will provide educational content for the telemedicine program beginning in Iraq and planned for rollout in other countries WiRED serves.
WiRED made history on January 17, 2006 with the successful test of its first telemedicine center in Iraq. Technicians in Baghdad interacted with teachers, members of the Edelman Institute and WiRED board members and supporters at San Francisco State University for over one hour via real-time audio and visual technologies. This is one of four WiRED telemedicine centers in Iraq that will allow doctors, nurses and medical students to learn, teach and diagnose with the international medical community.
April 2006 marked the first video conference between Iraq physicians at Baghdad's Medical City Center and US physicians at Washington DC's Children's Hospital.
April 2006 also initiated the telemedicine conference center in Erbil, Iraq with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center.
April 2006 saw the first inter-Iraq teleconference between doctors in Erbil and Baghdad. Not only will WiRED's Centers connect the Iraqi medical community with American and other Western medical educators, but they will provide a resource with which Iraqi physicians can talk among themselves in Baghdad, Erbil, Basrah and Mosul.
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2005: - an eventful year for WiRED. A new record was set for WiRED with the establishment of 39 new centers worldwide equipped with computers, Internet access and basic teleconferencing technologies; arrangements were finalized for an additional 20 Medical Information Centers in Iraq; Medical Information Centers were installed in Cholutca, Honduras teaching hospitals; a Medical Information Center was brought to the main medical school in Leon, Nicaragua; six additional Medical Information Centers were brought to Kosovo teaching hospitals, medical schools and major health clinics; installed three additional Medical Information Centers in Serbia; a public-access Community Health Information Center was established at the Novi Sad Humanitarian Center (NSHC) in Serbia; critical satellite connections for Internet access were introduced throughout WiRED's network of Medical Information Centers in Iraq; a partnership was established between the Marian Wright Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University to upgrade the content of the medical libraries used at our Centers around the world; two new databases were released: the Professional Medical Library and the Community Health Library; a new webpage portal was launched that enables medical personnel at WiRED's Medical Information Centers to access a broad range of medical websites in one easy location; free access was offered to the World Health Organization's HINARI database of more than 2,500 biomedical journals and medical journals through WiRED's webpage portal; a partnership was established with the International Office of Migration; all these achievements were made while continuing operations in 33 centers in Iraq, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Kenya and the Balkans.
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2004: Installed nine medical e-libraries in the Kurdish region of Iraq, and six Medical Information Centers in teaching hospitals in Basra and Kufae; Launch a training program for Iraqi nurses in partnership with the Marian Wright Edelman Center at San Francisco State University; Launched medical information Centers at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo, the University of Belgrade, Serbia and the Centro de Salud de Sutiava Clinic, Nicaragua; Dr. Gary Selnow awarded the San Francisco State University's Presidential Medal.
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2003: Installed Medical Information Centers in teaching hospitals at the University of Baghdad, and medical schools in Podgorica and Cetinje, Montenegro; Dedicated the first health information Center at the University of Leon Medical School in Nicaragua; Installed the first computer training lab in the Ahmadiyya Muslim School in Sierre Leone; Awarded "Best Charity Website" award by Affinity Internet, Inc.; Participated in a symposium on international communications at the United Nations headquarters.
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2002: Developed an acclaimed model to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS and other health care topics; hosted U.S. Ambassador to Kenya at the the College of Medical Sciences Center at the University of Nairobi; Dedicated the first Community Health Information Center at the Tuzla Medical School in Bosnia; Installed a health information Center in Vukovar, Croatia.
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2001: Began work on a network of health information Centers in Kenya; installed the first non-profit Internet center in Leon, Nicaragua in collaboration Massachusetts-based Polus Center; Opened seven Centers in Montenegro and six in Bosnian schools and orphanages.
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2000: Ran the educational and research features of the Kosovo Internet Access Initiative (KIAI), at the request of the U.S. Department of State.
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1997-2000: WiRED's first project brought Internet access to Vukovar, a devastated town along the Danube River in eastern Croatia; WiRED subsequently expanded to the rest of the Balkans (Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo).
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In addition to generous individuals, significant funders include Affinity Internet, Inc, The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, The Medtronic Foundation, Pfizer Inc., The Tatjana Grgich Family Foundation, the U.S. Department of State, the American Federation of Teachers, the U.S. Department of State, the Rotary Club of Tiburon-Belvedere, and the Rotary Foundation.
WiRED also wishes to acknowledge our partners
- Children's National Medical Center
- International Office of Migration (IOM)
- The Marian Wright Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University
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