This report outlines a proposal to provide computers for clinics, missions, schools and orphanages through out Honduras to use a free, reliable, and user friendly Internet e-mail system.  The plan allows for local Honduran businesses to be well rewarded for their key role in this project.  Due to your encouraging regard for improving the quality of live in Honduras through technology; I respectfully submit this for your esteemed consideration.

The general objective involves creatively novel uses of technology to help the Honduran poor and underprivileged.  The E³ proposal focuses on a specialized but straight forward, reliable e-mail system that can be provided to the most remote areas of Honduras where no telephone service is available.  The service is envisioned to provide a foundation for communications and information retrieval around which various education, health, and self-sufficiency programs can be leveraged. 

HONDUNET is the ISP (Internet service provider) that could initially grant free access for Internet e-mail service to the schools, clinics, agents, relief agencies, and missionaries.  The first areas to start with would be the schools of San Ramón and San Francisco Limpera.  A successful pilot demonstration should award our efforts with an enormous wealth of support.

Every person at the target site can have their own E³ e-mail address if desired.  The remote outpost will need to be equipped with a least one computer.  A customized menu systems will facilitate log-on and then assist users to easily, clearly & accurately formulate and address their e-mail.  The next link in the communication chain occurs when a routine trip is made to a town where an E³ agent is located.  Before leaving, someone (let's say Jane) simply needs to push a special function key on the computer which causes it to instruct Jane to insert a floppy.  The computer will then record all recently created e-mail that are ready for sending onto the floppy (afterwards it re-records the same information on a second floppy for back-up).

When Jane gets to town, she simply goes to the E³ agent's place of business and hands them the floppy.  Our E³ agent will know exactly what to do, (s)he doesn't even have to speak to Jane because all necessary account information will already reside on the floppy.  This agent (who needs telephone service to qualify) simply puts the floppy into their computer which in turn dials-up HONDUNET.  The agents computer is automatically logged onto a simple shell account at HONDUNET.  The only thing this account is good for is the automated transfer of both the outgoing and incoming e-mail.  After a few moments the agent's computer will report how many e-mail were sent and received (if there are errors, it will report what the problem was).  The agent then returns the floppy to Jane with the newly received e-mail messages stored on it.  When Jane returns to her village she inserts her floppy into the computer which reads in all the newly received e-mail and puts it into each individuals respective mail folder.  It is really quite simple.  Attachments and the normal feature set used by most e-mail program will be supported.  In instances where a computer has a sound card, e-mail could be read 'out loud' to recipients.

A crucial aspect to bear in mind is that very modest computers can be used in an immensely beneficial endeavor.  There is no need for WIN95, nor PPP connections, nor browser, nor WWW, nor Eudora, etc.  But what we do have is secure, reliable, permanent E-mail communications from the most poor and remote areas of Honduras to the entire world wide Internet community. Most of the technology is already easily available and well developed.  All we need to do is bring the various pieces together.  Most customization will be to make the system as easy and reliable for users to operate as possible.

Our E³ agents will be provided with the hardware and installation at cost.  They will be eager to do this because although they are obligated to transfer messages for our remote clients without charge; they can also use the system for both their own communication needs, and charge others for use of the system.  So if the agent is a local store owner, he would now have the option of placing many of his orders and other written communications via e-mail, thus saving long distance phone charges while retaining detailed documentation on all e-mail activity.  In addition he can offer his own customers the same advantages for a fair profit.  After the agents get a first hand taste of the power/profit potential of the Internet, they may want to upgrade their service to PPP and also upgrade the computers to take advantage of the WWW.  This is when HONDUNET could enjoy some profitable business.

In some instances there may be a demand to link the computers via radio modems to eliminate the need for floppy carriers.  Using AX.25 protocol to transfer bundled and compressed messages via radio promises to be a good solution.

A successful installation will make a bigger impact and say more than this report could ever hope to articulate.  We could also approach other Honduran ISPs and offer to setup their servers with the ability to handle E³ messaging if they agree to make it available to the charitable organizations operating in their area.  We would still handle all the field work of providing and setting up the computers.  Finally, photo document of computer equipment from supporting donors at use in the Honduran sites is encouraged.

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Organizational Possibilities and General Program Particulars

School-to-School:

A primary part of this initiative is to use this capability to bring rural children into interactive contact with classrooms in urban Honduras and the U.S.  Interest on both sides comes easily since it offers such a intriguing prospect to educators; because teachers can then arrange the sharing of e-mail letters and photos between their students.  Imagine inquisitive eager children learning directly from foreign peers about the others' life, culture, and homeland - a program that encourages students to personally interact with their international and urban counterparts. What could make a class in language, culture, geography or computers more alive, more relevant than the experience of children helping children to better understand their one world - an excellent way to build meaningful, lasting friendships.  Directly networking young pen pals should engender solidarity and goodwill both within and across Honduran borders.  Various language translation options are readily available for evaluation. 

Since foreign charities frequently work closely with local schools anyway, this provides a marvelous extension to the effectiveness of these efforts.  Additionally there are many times when missions are sponsored by institutions that also run schools in the U.S.  In such instances the U.S. students have little direct appreciation for the work their own school is doing overseas.  Our simple e-mail system fully grants these institutions an excellent opportunity to maximize the benefits of their efforts and investments for the children in both countries.

Grantee-to-Grantor:

This e-mail initiative will also allow disadvantaged individuals and groups to communicate directly with interested philanthropic organizations and companies who in turn could offer direct assistance to them with minimal bureaucratic and middleman involved.  This may be especially vital in areas where the siphoning off of charitable supplies is a concern to the donors.

Community based e-mail service:

Full community involvement is enthusiastically supported by this E³ project.  The contacts made between school children is encouraged to extend to their families (or communities) at large.  When it is not advantageous for a school or clinic to extend service to whole families and others, the 'certified' Honduran agents (explained above) will have rewarding incentives to support community e-mail service from their business establishments.

E-adoption:

If the Jones family of the U.S. form a cordial relationship the Honduran Cruz family, several mutually advantageous possibilities exist.  Gifts or tokens of sustenance could be exchanged between the two families that are perfectly tailored to each others wants and needs.  This kind of personal support would have the added reward and meaning of being shared with friends who can personally write to express their gratitude.  Knowing first hand that gifts actually do get through and are put to its intended use is most gratifying and should result in more families becoming involved.  For Jones' or Cruzs' interested in visiting the other's country - their relationship with each other could well prove to be the very element necessary to make dreams reality.  Because now a friend on the other side is able to help with logistics, and will be happy to receive you upon arrival and eager to make your trip a wonderful one. All this will also likely make both families more informed and involved in foreign policy affairs of their countries.

Linking families adds an unprecedented personal effect that far surpasses the dispassion of conventional charity programs. Within the vision for E³, the heretofore forgotten and unknown story of individual Honduran orphans has the possibility to bond across borders and reach the hearts and minds of those ready and willing to electronically adopt (or "E-adoption" - a new era).

Tracking Relief Supplies:

In interviews with charities operating oversees, I am impressed by their universal need for networks of reliable delivery routes and carriers whereby all donations consistently get to the needy recipients intact.  Creating dependable delivery channels is beyond the scope of E³, but our system lends itself well to tracking donations. Honduran officials sensitive to suspicions of corruption state, "The government is well aware of possible mismanagement of aid assistance. We want to calm the world's fears regarding this delicate situation.  Any mismanagement will be investigated thoroughly and dealt with swiftly and harshly." However, since lost donations are not actually matters of aggression or physical violence, military 'solutions' may not be optimal.  Simple open accountability would solve problems of perception better than a coercive policy.  It is the charitable groups that owe it to donors and recipients alike to track their packages like UPS and other carriers do.  In any event, E³ efforts can help coordinate, track, and communicate the arrival and fruitful use of relief supplies.  Furthermore, many aspects of emergency rescue missions are greatly improved through available enhanced communications.

WEB site:

WWW service is not necessary part of the E³ package since PPP is not required.  However, a WEB site should be maintain that will track movement of supplies through Honduras.  Photo stories of donation collection, arrival and productive use would also be available for world access.

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U.S. Based Contacts and their Comments

Several friendly leaders in social service agencies and public organizations have shown interest. The potential ancillary involvement of these persons remains unknown, but when needed, copies of IRS letters confirming an organization's tax exempt or public support status under Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a), respectively, of the Internal Revenue Code will pose no problems.

Government:

1.) Conversations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been frank and cordial.  A local contact advises that while they bring in state of the art communications equipment to the sites where they perform relief work, none of it remains behind when they leave. Upon hearing these ideas, he was impressed and suggested that FEMA may even be interested after such a system is developed and tested.

2.) Norman Ross, director of the East St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and a Board of Director for Youth Entrepreneurs, is eager to have selected East Saint Louis teens use computers to help them start and run their own small business. He's also interested in our Honduran projects.

Nonprofit Organizations:

1.) Children's Home & Aid Society and Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, plus the United Churches Neighborhood House (both serving St. Louis).

2.) The number of schools interested in E³ continues to grow, and includes both public and private institutions from the most exclusive to the very poorest.

Individuals:

1.) Tony Brown (author & award-winning PBS host of Tony Brown's Journal) encourages his fellow African-Americans to learn computers.  He laments a national survey that shows blacks disproportionately lack basic computer skills.  So he wants to shed light on the technology revolution to keep the underprivileged from being bypassed. Mr. Brown shares our vision that the poor are emboldened by computers and Internet access.  He wants to help "empower people of all colors for the 21^st century." When appropriate, Mr. Brown will assist and publicize our efforts.

2.) Sandra K. Behrens and her partner Michale C. Hawker are the directors of Mission de Los Niños (MLN), a charitable organization helping to build nonprofit schools in Nicaragua. MLN could be interested in supporting E³ programs in their schools. They also assured us that they've developed trusted contacts for moving supplies within both Nicaragua and Honduras.

All the preceding contacts from FEMA to Sandy recognize the dire need for a capability such as E³ for freely available worldwide independent e-mail communications for remote missions; but none are aware of programs anything like this. Therefore the development of a reliable user-friendly communication system is currently suggested as a high priority. Since the need is so crucial and our solution decisively effective I trust we could enjoy overwhelming levels of support in all critical areas.  These areas include sources for used computer equipment, radio modems, transceivers, and certainly transportation.