lunes, 10 de septiembre de 2007

TIV triunfa a nivel internacional


A continuación presentamos el proyecto que fuera enviado por nuestra compañera Nathalie Peter al Foro Mundial por la Paz en Egipto y que le permitió ganar el primer puesto en un certamen que tuvo lugar durante este encuentro llevado a a cabo en el mes de setiembre de 2007.


WHEN ICT IS A REAL HOPE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

By Nathalie Peter/URUGUAY

This is the story of a successful initiative created to be a stimulating idea for young people, initiative that was due to the use of information technologies and internet.
A little big country located in the south of South America: The Oriental Republic of Uruguay, has got limits with Brazil and Argentina; two giants if compared with our small country of about 3.400.000 inhabitants.
Our population has its origin in spanish, italian and french immigrants.
During the 20th century, Uruguay was known as the Switzerland from South America for its Welfare State; however, as a consequence of economic crisis, emigration started to grow, and leaving our country turned to be a harmful habit.
The most skilled and educated young people were warmly welcomed in the countries of their grandparents and then invited their fellow neighbours and friends to emigrate and try new opportunities.
So in the blink of an eye, between 2002 and 2003, 58.000 young people unwillingly abandoned their families looking for a better future abroad.
The consequences of such a sudden and numerous emigration were a lot: low birth rate and 50% of children born in poor families, while the social security suffered serious shortages due to the lack of new tax payers.
It was necessary to do something to stop this situation, so, a group of young concerned citizens decided to create a NGO to develop an innovative project to help young people not to emigrate and also to create better conditions to study and work in our country.
The NGO called “Uruguay of the Ideas”, decided to create a contest where young people could participate with their innovative projects and ideas and award them not only with interesting prizes but also backing their projects up to the moment they could make them real. Every participant could also join the NGO to help to make the contest grow in reach and enthusiasm, by visiting highschools, polytechnic schools, colleges, etc, to inform students about the advantages of taking part of the contest.
But there was no time for meetings, not even money to rent a permanent office. There was only the strong motivation to help our people and above all, a very traditional and conservative society that usually distrusted young people, for its idiosyncrasy.
Nevertheless, uruguayans have a honorable second place in number of internet users in Latin America, with a 19.3% according to the annual report: “The economy of Information” of the United Nations Conference for Commerce and Development.
A 39% of our population has access to computers. Hundreds of cyberpoints are present in every neighborhood of all the cities of our country.
By taking advantage of this valuable reality, the Organization could consolidate a virtual net through which it was able to work effectively and efficiently. And it works till today in a virtual way.
Without this powerful tool, the project would have never existed.
The call to participate in “Your Ideas are Valuable” opens each year in each edition, with a lot of expectation and hope. The mail box where the projects are sent, receives hundreds of ideas and proposals. Enthusiastic and brilliant projects are sent from every town and even villages of our country.
They are young people between 15 to 29 years old, who never before have had the chance to be listened, and who have never dared to imagine that their projects could be valued and put into practice, even by themselves.
On the second edition of the contest, the number of projects received, doubles, and the winners of the first edition start to discuss through the network about how to improve their ideas, strategies to obtain financial aid; a supportive net begins to work very seriously.
Those who had to leave their country and are living abroad, start to send their ideas as well.
The project gets better, everybody with the same possibilities to discuss and enrich the debate; the distances and lack of resources not withstanding.
The use of internet let the organizers of the initiative develop this valuable idea which let a lot of young people find a place where their dreams are taken into account.
Adult people can’t no longer be indifferent, something new is going on and so, some prestigious and important private companies decide to support and sponsor the project.
When the third edition in 2007 was about to be launched, the organizers and former awarded young were invited to meet the recently created Science and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives.
After the Representatives who are members of the Committee listened to each participant of the contest and each member of the staff of “Your Ideas are Valuable”, they officially declared the project as one of national importance –unanimously-.
Now we have an office given by an International Organization, through the help of GJM (Mercosur Young Group) and Young Americas Business Trust.
The media pays attention to us and publishes and broadcast our initiatives and activities.
The use of internet gave us the chance to open a successful dialogue with our own society and mainly with the young.
We proved that a culture based on a sincere and wide social dialogue let us deeply improve our culture, being innovation and endeavouring two aspects that are fundamental to insert our country in the world.
Through our website, our blog and our e-mail, young people share their ideas and opinions to have the chance to make their ideas come true.
“Your Ideas are Valuable” helps them to have interviews with strategic agencies and companies which might give them further opportunities to make their projects grow.
Our website http://www.uruguaypiensa.org.uy/ is visited by 10.000 people a month, and all the projects awarded in 2005 and 2006 can be seen in there.
By the way, my name is Nathalie Peter, I am 21 years old, and I am one of the winners of this National Contest. Nowadays, I am in charge of the Strategic Communication Department of “Your Ideas are Valuable”. I am travelling to Egypt in a week, to represent my country and “Your Ideas are Valuable”, an experience that changed my life and the life of many young people. It has also created a new commitment towards the development of our country and the world based on peace, culture, knowledge, science and technology.
The ideas that have been awarded up to now, go from the use of alternative sources of energy, historical and ecological tourism projects, industrial equipment projects related to ICT, cultural activities, various initiatives to improve the urban life, to projects to re-enforce latinamerican integration.
All of them are at the moment in different stages of development.
It must be mentioned, that a project awarded the second prize of the 2005 edition, is now being carried out with the financing and support of Montevideo City Council. The amount invested to rebuild Parque Tomkinson -a historical and extraordinary park that had been abandoned for decades- is 100.000 dollars. It also counts with the support of the National College of Arts with the building of big wooden totems and statues, an activity that turned the idea of a young woman into the commitment of a whole society, as one member of our staff once recited:
“Once upon a time there was a tiny country where people used to dream. One day, a man dreamt that he was Borges. One day Borges dreamt that he was Uruguayan. It was a serious thing that of dreaming.
One day will arrive, said the dreaming man, that young people will be valued for their ideas. They will dream dreams of robots. They will dream with love. They will dream dreams of truth and justice. Of wealth, of audacity and democracy.They will create parks, re –invent cities, old customs will get used to value things such as greeting a stranger, such as kissing unknown people on the streets, like packing machines. They will dream that they were made to dream. They will invent the freedom to think and they will doubt about everything that was invented before.Their ideas will have no price , but they will be rewarded.
And so it was.
Welcome to the country of tomorrow”.
“Your Ideas are Valuable”
(Tus Ideas Valen)




3 comentarios:

Daniela dijo...

Hola Nathalie, soy Daniela Stanisich, no se si te acordaras de mi, eramos compañeras en el Juventus en los campamentos de verano junto con tu hermana Annick. Simplemente pase por aquí para felicitarte y decirte que me alegro mucho por todo lo q has logrado ya que por lo que te conozco (a tí y a tu hermana) son excelentes personas.
Un abrazo,
Daniela

Unknown dijo...

Daniela!
claro que me acuerdo de vos!. Qué alegría ver tu mensaje. Muchas gracias. Espero verte pronto y por qué no, participando en "Tus Ideas Valen".
Un saludo muy afectuoso
Nathalie

Amoctad dijo...

Hi my dear Nathalie

I entered you name on google and I found this article. I am very proud of you. Courage. We can make difference.