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Digital Divide Data Cambodia



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Digital Divide Data: GKP Youth Award 2003 - Overall Winner: Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Digital Divide Data (DDD) is a project that involves disadvantaged youth in Cambodia in an integrated educational, vocational training and work program. The idea behind the project is to connect young people, who are struggling to survive in one of the world's least developed nations, with the global economy. DDD does this by creating non-profit data entry outsourcing centres that only hire individuals under 25 who are orphans, physically disabled or trafficked women.

 

DDD's operations are completely ICT based. Input is received in the form of digital images. DDD employees convert these to ASCii files, create databases, add HTML and then email the output to clients around the world. The centre has 50 computers and each employee spends most of his time working with ICT. DDD has also put in place a management information system that tracks work through its digitisation pipeline, maintains finances and monitors productivity, punctuality and quality.

 

The benefits of the project are enormous. In developing countries like Cambodia, most young people cannot complete secondary school education. Students drop out of school because they cannot afford the fees and have to support their families. DDD's employees not only benefit from having a job and wages far above local standards, but they also receive scholarships for education, health benefits, vocational counselling and work in a safe environment. This gives them the confidence and self-esteem that come from self-reliance.

 

DDD's social mission is to break the cycle of poverty by providing training and job opportunities. For Soy Sokorn for example, further education was an impossibility. He supports his immediate family of five, and helps support an extended family of 12. He now studies computers and English while working part-time at DDD. Keo Sambath who lost a leg in a landmine explosion, is improving his IT skills at DDD, and is enrolled in a degree programme. Muny is a young woman disabled by polio. Her stint with DDD resulted in a rapid improvement of her computer skills, English and self-confidence. She now works as a translator for the Australian Embassy, netting a high income for one so young, and has become a role model for others with polio who are struggling to overcome the stigma society has placed on them.

 

DDD's underlying philosophy is that the world must do more than build Internet lines and give computers. There is an added responsibility to connect the people to these resources in an empowering way that results in a tangible benefit in their everyday life. Since its inception in Phnom Penh two years ago, DDD has benefited more than 80 disadvantaged youths. All have received in-house training and work experience, and all have been enrolled in outside certificate or degree programmes with DDD paying for their education.

 

Its business became a financially self-sustainable enterprise within 9 months, and has to date, earned more than USD140,000 in revenue. Clients include Bain Capital, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, Mobitel, the local cellular phone provider, Tufts University Library and the University of Chicago.

 

DDD's partners include a wide variety of institutions, NGOs and businesses. In Cambodia, DDD works with Wat Than School, Future Light Orphanage, New Life Foundation, SME Cambodia, Cambodia Women Coordination Council, and Cambodia Volunteers Coordination Council. It has a strategic partnership with CyberData in Delhi, India, which assists with work that is challenging and has provided DDD with proprietary double entry software. Among sponsors for its scholarship programme are Mekong Project Development Facility, the Asia Foundation, USAID, World Bank, Rotary Club of Denver, Soros Foundation and Kearny Alliance.


This project has received numerous recognitions and awards. It has been honoured by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation of Cambodia for working with disabled people and was recognised as a good organisation and received support from the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia. The Global Knowledge Partnership named DDD as one of the best practices in the Asia Pacific Youth Leaders in ICT Workshop and it has also been selected as a finalist in a World Bank award.

 

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