Across Borders Project launches language and IT training

The Center for Continuing Education (CCE) in coordination with the Birzeit Information Technology Unit (BIT) at Birzeit University, today launched the course in English language and information technology skills for the Across Borders Project (ABP).

The 200-hour course is supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and managed by the British Council in Jerusalem, and is aimed at training trainers working in the refugee camps in the Project. Three trainees from each of the refugee camps of Dheisheh, Jalazone, Far'a, Ama'ari and A'skar will be attending the course.

Mrs. Haifa Baramki, Director of CCE, said that the course aims at overcoming all the roadblocks and obstacles in the connectivity between Palestinians living in refugee camps in Palestine and the Diaspora through technology. One of their aims, Mrs. Baramki said, is to introduce new horizons in technology to the people in the refugee camps, and to increase and sustain their English language and technological skills.

Mr. Gerard Russell (Consul – Political) at the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, said that the Consulate is happy to see that the course was launched, and said that the Ambassador in Lebanon has great interest in the Project, now also operating in Bourj al-Shamali Refugee Camp in Lebanon.

ABP was launched by BIT at Birzeit University in May 1999 and as of September 2000 the management of the project was transferred to CCE in Ramallah, which houses and manages ABP. The aim of ABP is to bring Information Technology (IT) into Palestinian Refugee Camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and to connect families and friends in these camps through the internet and video conferencing.

The Project has been sponsored by a number of international donors, such as Australian Aid through Oxfam G.B., Oxfam-Quebec, Canada Fund and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). A number of national companies are interested in funding the project, and Paltel, the Palestinian telephone company, is the first national sponsor, and will be connecting the refugee camps with the necessary telephone and cable lines in order to facilitate the installation process of all the computers and internet lines.