Internet Access and Training Program (IATP)
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Internet Program Helps Kids Participate in the Global Network of Kidlink

Kids in Kazakhstan gather at an IATP site to participate in Kidlink activities

More than 900 students from 224 schools in Central Asia, Western Eurasia, and the Caucasus joined Kidlink’s global network of friends with the support of Internet Access and Training Program (IATP). Throughout the beginning months of 2003, IATP translated Kidlink lesson materials into Russian, and trained students for participation in the Kidlink forums and curricula. The addition of Russian-language pages to the Kidlink website allows students from countries of the former Soviet Republics to use Kidlink to connect with each other across borders that have become ever-more divisive.

Kidlink, a nongovernmental organization based in Norway, helps students increase their knowledge of self, culture, and society so that they can better share their lives with other children that they meet online. Since its foundation in 1990, Kidlink has utilized the Internet to enroll students from 157 countries on every continent. Enrolled students have access to listservs, chats, forums, lesson series, and research reference materials.

IATP, a provider of free Internet access and training in 11 countries throughout Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Western Eurasia, collaborates with Kidlink to increase local participation with the organization. IATP creates inroads to the local community by providing teachers with Internet training and seminars on how Kidlink can be incorporated into lesson plans and shared with students. Furthermore, IATP has been influential in developing a Russian version of the Kidlink site, as Russian was not one of the 21 languages previously supported by Kidlink.

Picture submitted as answer to “Who Am I?” by Elina Mamedova, 10th grade student from Mingachevir, Azerbaijan.

Kidlink participants must register with the Kidlink website and answer a series of introductory questions. Students’ responses, which can be in the form of images or written answers, are then posted to a moderated forum. Through their responses to the introductory questions, students in the region demonstrated that they already have an appreciation for the role friendship plays in improving international relationships, and the world at large. For example, in response to a question on what she could do to make the world a better place, Ekaterina in Ukraine wrote, “Well, firstly I begin making friends around the world right now, particularly through this project. My school often accepts foreign guests and we tell them about our country, show them our cultural heritages, and they talk about us when they come home.”

Administered by IREX since 1995, the Internet Access and Training Program is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State.

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The Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) is a program of the Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs (ECA), US Department of State, funded under the Freedom Support Act (FSA). IATP is administered by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX).