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WiRED’s Community Health Information Centers: Evidence of Impact at The Grass Roots

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In 2001, WiRED received a developmental grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine if computers could deliver health information in low-resource Kenyan communities. While in the West we were slowly building computers into our daily routines, people in the needy countries we served had rarely seen one. NIH’s charge to WiRED was: Can computers teach people about HIV/AIDS and good health? Answering that became the focus of our early work in Kenya.

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Paradox Amid the Rubble

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The room at the Al Kadhymia Teaching Hospital in Iraq had bars on the windows, lots of electrical outlets, and plenty of space to accommodate computers. I was traveling with an American computer technician and an Iraqi physician in May on a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to create medical-information centers at teaching hospitals and medical schools throughout the country. We were looking for places to install our equipment, and this room could have been the perfect spot.

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Shared Vision Brings WiRED to Kenya

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From the moment Kenya gained independence in 1963, local and national leaders have envisioned a day when the country could finally eradicate poverty, ignorance, and disease. Leaders then and now realize that any real progress against any one of these three tightly interwoven challenges requires simultaneous progress in the other two areas as well.

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Aziz M. Mustafa began work as a general practitioner in Kosovo

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In 1992, Aziz M. Mustafa began work as a general practitioner in Kosovo. Five years later, he was in residence in the ENT Department at the University Medical Center in Prishtina. He is currently completing final examinations in Austria after which time he will be a licensed ENT surgeon. Thanks to WiRED¹s work in Kosovo, Aziz has been on-line since February 2000, when he went to WiRED¹s Internet Center in Gjilan. Here¹s what he says about the importance access to the Internet has had on his medical career. “I was at the Center for one or two hours every day. The Internet was my way of gaining new knowledge. I have access to all the data I need about my professional and scientific education.” He goes on to say access to the Internet has radically changed the way he learns. “I learned more in this period of time on the Net than I did during the past three years of classical education.”

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WiRED enables Kosovar children undergoing cancer treatment in Italy to “talk” with their families for first time in months via the Internet

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San Francisco, CA, November 18, 2000 – WiRED, an international organization dedicated to bringing the resources of the Internet to war-ravaged places like Kosovo, launched its innovative “Video Visit” program on Thursday, November 16. The project enables families of seriously ill children undergoing treatment in European hospitals to make “live” visits via Internet-linked video.

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Progress towards Croatian Reconstruction Continues

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Vukovar, Croatia, July 27, 2002 – Vukovar, Croatia has taken another step in the reconstruction of their war-torn community with the dedication of a new Community Health Information Center. The Center, developed by World Internet Resources for Education and Development (WiRED) and funded by Medtronic Foundation will focus on daily life-style issues such as diet, nutrition and smoking-cessation.

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State Department and WiRED bring the Internet to Kosovo

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The U.S. Department of State has established free computer centers at seven locations in war-ravaged Kosovo as part of its Kosovo Internet Access Initiative (KIAI). These centers are managed by the International Organization on Migration and operated with the help of a nonprofit foundation called WiRED (World Internet Resources for Education and Development). The aim is to help stabilize and revitalize communications between people in Kosovo and the outside world.