Get on board the information boat
Article:
Grameenphone and CARE partner to provide communications services to people in remote Bangladesh.
In the Sunamgonj and Kishoregonj districts of Bangladesh, residents are increasingly boarding boats to get online. The boats serve as information hubs for the people residing in these rural communities, providing them with the opportunity to learn, share and communicate with the world.
Grameenphone and CARE partner to bring Tothyo Tori to the rural residents
Called “Tothyo Tori” or information boats, this unique approach to bringing communications tools to people in Bangladesh is the result of a partnership between Grameenphone and CARE, an organization dedicated to fighting global poverty. There are currently four information boats in operation, and they travel up and down the haor, a wetland ecosystem in the north eastern part of Bangladesh, on a fixed schedule.
“We are providing Internet to areas where the level of education is quite low and the residents are largely disconnected from the main land,” said Debashis Roy, Acting Head of CR, Grameenphone. “In the beginning, very few people had any knowledge of the Internet, so it was difficult to get them interested in learning about computers and the Web. But we are seeing an increase in usage every day, as more and more people learn about the opportunities that await on the information boat.”