Internet Access and Training Program (IATP)

IATP News from Western Eurasia

January 7-21, 2005

UKRAINE

IATP Ukraine Organizes Discussion about the Ukrainian Presidential Elections with IATP Users from Other Countries in the Former Soviet Union

On January 17, IATP Ukraine organized a regional Internet conference, entitled Presidential Elections in Ukraine: Lessons of Democracy. More than 50 journalists, alumni of US government-sponsored programs, and other interested people participated from IATP access sites in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. The IATP access site in Kyiv, Ukraine, hosted guest experts including Svoboda Radio Journalist Taras Marusyk, Director of the Center of Near-Eastern Studies Ihor Semivolos, and Gromadske Radio (Public Radio) Journalist and Producer Roman Vybranovsky, who answered questions about the presidential elections in Ukraine and the Orange Revolution. The experts discussed legal violations that occurred during the elections and emphasized the role that nongovernmental organizations played in the election monitoring process. The participants from other countries posed questions on the role that youth played in the elections, the impact of mass media, and the work of independent observers. They also asked the experts about applying the experience gained from the Orange Revolution in other countries. Then participants discussed the political situations in their countries. During the online discussion citizens of other countries received unbiased information about the presidential elections in Ukraine and established new contacts for implementing democratic values in their countries.

IATP in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Facilitates Donations to Local Orphans

IATP Staff
Mykola Tsyglin works in the IATP
access site in Dnipropetrovsk

On December 30, staff at the IATP access site in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, heard about the success of one of their IATP users, Mykola Tsyglin (CC 99), in donating computers to a local orphanage, partially thanks to the assistance of IATP staff and services. Since he began using IATP services in June 2001, Tsyglin has attended many training sessions and conducted two seminars for local audiences. In the beginning of this past December, Tsyglin asked employees of the IATP access site in Dnipropetrovsk to help him in his plan to make life better for local orphans. He wanted to donate computers to children living in local orphanages, but needed to find orphanages with the managers who would best use the computers for the orphans. Once he told IATP staff about his intention to donate, they sent out a request via an IATP mailing list dedicated to local alumni of US government-sponsored exchange programs and contacted local partners in order to help him find the best destinations for his charitable contributions. In the end, Tsyglin used his own funds to buy computers and donate them to the Ionovy Foster Home, a state-funded foster care facility, where 11 children reside. After donating the computers, Tsyglin visited the IATP access site in Dnipropetrovsk and remarked, “Now I see that IATP not only provides high-quality trainings and other services to Ukrainians, but it is also a socially active program. Without your help my charity project would not be effective and useful for the children I want to help.”

MOLDOVA

School Principals Learn Computer and Internet Basics in Balti

School principals learn about the
advantages of Internet use

From January 10 to 13, IATP Balti Trainer Gabriela Zaharia led a course on computer and Internet basics for 18 school principals and deputy principals from Balti, Moldova. The attendees came to IATP to learn about computers and mainly to explore the advantages of integrating the Internet into the school system. This has become more relevant in the past year in Moldova because of legislation put out by the Moldovan government to enhance computer usage in schools. IATP is heavily involved in this process. Zaharia delivered a brief presentation on IATP and its services and explained to the participants how to edit text, to work with tables, and to efficiently manage files and folders. The trainer further spoke about basic search principles on the Web and enumerated the advantages of e-mail use in rapidly exchanging large volumes of information. The IATP course came at a very convenient time as the majority of schools in Balti were connected to the Internet in the autumn of 2004. IATP hopes to be an integral part of education in the future of Moldova. Following the IATP class, school principals can now elaborate new and efficient ways for students to benefit from schools’ access to the online educational world.

Interns Contribute to the Sustainable Development of the IATP Access Site in Chisinau, Moldova

IATP trainer
IATP Chisinau Intern Eugeniu
Botnaru gathers training material to
assist in conducting the Web
design course

During the month of January, three interns at the IATP access site in Chisinau, Petru Datii, Nina Ciobanu, and Eugeniu Botnaru, proved instrumental in the day-to-day running of the largest IATP access site in Moldova. The IATP interns’ dedication, voluntary input, and experience ensured the access site’s stability and a smooth transition for new IATP team members during a time when the full-time staff was changing. Datii registered visitors to the access site, compiled statistics, and supervised the access site’s activity in the administrator’s absence. Ciobanu, who created the website for the Computer Science Department of the Academy of Transport, Computer Science, and Communications took the lead in helping IATP visitors with computer questions and assisting them in building their own websites. Botnaru started his internship at IATP on January 18, but he is already gathering training material for an upcoming Web design course. Botnaru will also assist Web designers during the practical portion of the upcoming course to make sure the attendees get the most out of their training hours at IATP. In January, the IATP Chisinau interns’ contributions set the tone for the development of a sustainable model at IATP Moldova.