Google donates Nexus One handsets to kickstart Sri Lanka's Digital Dividend project

[Guest vinaymanro]

New year – new projects! We’re launching a new project called “Digital Dividend,” which has been kickstarted with the donation of over $13,000 in Nexus One handsets from Google Inc! Tag ID is deeply grateful for Google’s ‘in kind’ donation which will help change lives.

What, then, does Tag ID intend to do with $13,000 worth of Nexus One handsets? We’ve had to keep it under wraps until now, but we can now reveal all. Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka’s largest development organisation, is working within villages there for people displaced by the recent Civil War. Our plan is to go to Sri Lanka and put Android handsets directly in the hands of Sarvodaya villagers. We are handing over “Tools for Education”, “A Window to Knowledge” and “Access to the World’s Information”. Empowerment – so exciting! The people on the East Coast of Sri Lanka have suffered terribly, Civil War, Tsunami, Flooding – it’s just been one disruption after another.

You can help too! Do you, or does anyone you know have a spare Android handset or solar charger? We need to find 100 further used (but functioning) Android powered handsets and solar chargers from corporate and personal donors from the UK and Canada. Where possible, we will link you to the recipient via the handset and social media platforms, so you can stay in touch (you don’t have to though!). Maybe you’re a Sri Lankan expat in the UK and Canada and want to be part of this and connect in an entirely new way with your homeland? [email protected] if you can help us reach our target.

[source: Tag ID Blog]