We have seen the Internet enrich the lives of children in the Third World, and we believe that the Electronic Peace Corps approach would help spread this blessing and use it well. A s volunteers with the existing U.S. Peace Corps and as environmental educators, we lived and worked in Uruguay within the Department of Rivera. Mostly we worked in NGO development, environmental education, and natural resources protection. And we quickly missed the wealth of books and other resources that we had taken for granted in the United States. Having materials shipped to us was not a good way to share knowledge with the people of Uruguay, due to the high costs of sending the packages, which might arrive late or not at all.
Books are heavy.
So we had to look for a faster, cheaper, and more encompassing solution, and we found it in the Internet. Finally we discovered a provider not more than a block off the heart of the downtown area. Other people were as eager to get online as we were. It was amazing to watch the Internet blossom in Uruguay in just the short time we were there. This proved to be more fruitful than we had ever dared to imagine.