But Palestinian boys and girls like Salwa Ziada are receiving the help of groups like Enlighten and Across Borders , another nonprofit advocating for technological literacy. These people have been disadvantaged for quite some time. The organization's surveys show that the task of bringing the Palestinian people access to technology as well as computer and Internet literacy is a daunting one. According to statistics compiled by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , only 11 percent of Palestinian households in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have computers. A mere 2 percent of households have access to the Internet.
Resources are also an issue.
Enlighten's founders have seen the reality of these conditions on the ground. We thought, 'You could build a library there and put in lots of books,' but a lot of that information is already on the Internet. Still, the nonprofit has a resource crunch of its own. Although leaders would like to teach Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and how to find information on the Internet to all 9,000 children in the Bureij Camp of Central Gaza, their facilities only allow them to reach 70 students every two months. We hope to expand the center and set up two or three more centers in the next three months.