MISSION To provide information and communication resources that benefit disadvantaged people around the world. View Annual Report – 2002
BACKGROUND WiRED began as a small effort by Dr. Gary Selnow while he was serving as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Zagreb in Croatia.

The Medtronic Foundation, WiRED, Euroregional Commission and Tuzla Medical School join in the celebration. On November 20, 2002, WiRED International launched a new Community Heath Information Center (CHIC) in the Tuzla, Bosnia Medical School. The new Center provides the faculty, students and the community with the latest medical information available on CDs and on the Internet.

Computers and the Internet became a daily part of life for students in three orphanages in Bosnia. Thanks to the generosity of its supporters, Wired transported computers to this region for installation in three Information Access Centers in each orphanage.

WiRED has introduced a new Community Health Information Center in Vukovar, Croatia-the site of the first WiRED Center in 1997. The new Center joins the community activity at the Vukovar Institute for Peace Research (VIPR).

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.

WiRED and the Medtronic Foundation have teamed up to expand WiRED’s humanitarian programs in Bosnia and Croatia. Medtronic, an international medical technology corporation, supports community programs that enhance and extend the lives of millions of people worldwide.

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.

The Novi Sad Humanitarian Center has been cooperating with “The Youth of JAZAS” (Yugoslavian Association to Fight AIDS). This NGO, from Novi Sad, organizes and trains young volunteers who conduct peer education in elementary and secondary schools in Vojvodina, a province in northern Serbia situated between Croatia, Hungary and Romania.

Hot coffee, delicious meals, a cozy atmosphere, and computers go together in the Ben Linder Cyber-Café. This is also where Walking Unidos, the Polus Center and WiRED International came together to support aid to the disabled while providing the people of Leon, Nicaragua with high speed Internet access. The Ben Linder Cybercafe was WiRED’s first program in Nicaragua.

Walking Unidos began with local citizens who recognized a great need for a clinic to give accident and landmine victims prosthetic devices that would enable them to have more normal mobility and more hope for a productive life.