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PRESS RELEASE 
TSF inaugurates IT Cup Centre in Nicaragua
A Community Communication Centre for all
Pau, 5 February 2008. Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) inaugurated its new IT Cup Centre in Telpaneca, Nicaragua, a town located 200 kilometers from the capital Managua and situated in a mountainous and isolated region in Northern Nicaragua at the border with Honduras. Telpaneca is a town of 19 000 inhabitants from 33 communities in the fourth poorest district of the country at the heart of the indigenous territories.
The IT Cup Centre was inaugurated on February 4th by Karim Mokhnachi, President of the IT Cup, Jean-François Cazenave, Founding President of TSF, Monique Lanne-Petit, Founding Director and many beneficiaries of the Centre.
A friendly match between two local football teams from Telpaneca closed the opening ceremony.
This Community Communication Centre will benefit the indigenous populations of Telpaneca and local governmental institutions which administrate them. This Centre was installed within the framework of the National Program to Bridge the Digital Divide and the general development of the region. The Centre is also equipped with printers and scanners and will provide Broadband Internet access, phone lines for national and international calls to local charities and organizations, local authorities and the population.
A unique programme in Nicaragua
Students, farmers, local organizations’ members will also benefit from IT trainings according to their needs.
TSF negotiated with local operator Enitel to extend the network to Telpaneca so that the Centre had the cheapest and most reliable connection. This unique agreement in Nicaragua aims to reduce ongoing costs and therefore to make the IT Cup Centre sustainable.
Besides the funds TSF invested to set up the Centre and train local staff, each user will participate in funding the Centre depending on his resources. All fees collected will be allocated to making the Centre sustainable. The IT CUP Centre also offers a Wi-Fi connection so that a maximum number of users have access to Internet. Wi-Fi links have been set up in different parts of the town and six governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education have dedicated access in their offices. The objective is that within three years the indigenous community will cover the running costs of the Centre and becomes the owner.
The success IT Cup Centre in Niger
The Centre of Telpaneca is based on the same model as the IT Cup Centre in Niger that TSF opened a year ago. Since its opening in March 2007, the Communication Centre benefited more than 300 members from 70 local or international organizations working with the most underprivileged people of Dakoro. More than 190 members from local charities and students of Dakoro also benefited from IT and Internet trainings provided by TSF.
Mahaman Salissou Goumar from ADLI, a local NGO involved in development projects, stresses the importance of the Communication Centre: « The IT Cup Centre has been a great encouragement particularly for our young ones and it helped NGOs working to develop the region. It also keeps us connected with the outside world and opened new horizons. The centre also contributes in improving NGO coordination and eases fund raising. It helped us better use computers in a world which talks about nothing but IT. ».
Kladoumadjé Nadjaldougar, Head of mission of ASB-NIGER added: « ASB has been working in Dakoro for two years with huge communication difficulties. This morning I was able to download a document sent by my head office based in Germany. What a satisfaction, what a relief, what a time spare! Without the IT Cup Centre, I would have had to travel 4 hours to the nearest town Maradi.
Inoussa Issa, from Doctors Without Borders Belgium: « It’s a great opportunity for the people of Dakoro because most of them never had access to the Internet before. It’s highly important because it strengthens the capacity of public services and independent agents, of international NGOs and local charities. »
One Tournament for each Continent
Thanks to the next IT Cup tournament taking place on June 29th in Clairefontaine, TSF is hoping to open a third IT Cup Centre in Asia. The NGO is currently looking into different projects and the implantation will depend on funds raised at the next tournament. Companies interested in helping isolated communities in having access to communications are welcome to contact the IT Cup to register for the tournament. You can read more on www.itcup.org.
More about
IT Cup : New technologies, football and humanitarian aid
The IT Cup is the reference in charity football tournaments for IT companies. The first two editions were supported by 1998 World Cup Champions Zinedine Zidane and Laurent Blanc. The IT Cup takes place every year at Clairefontaine, the training centre of the French national football team. More than 30 teams from the some of the biggest IT and telecoms companies confront each other in a convivial spirit. Each team pays an entry fee depending on their turnover and the funds collected are donated to a charity putting new technologies at the heart of its projects. For the third consecutive year, IT Cup organizers decided to support Télécoms Sans Frontières.
The 5th edition of the tournament will take place on June 29th. The IT Cup or how to associate new technologies, football and humanitarian aid.
Télécoms Sans Frontières: the leading humanitarian NGO specialised in emergency telecommunications.
With its 24-hour monitoring centre and relying on its operational bases in France, Nicaragua and in Thailand, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) crews of IT and telecoms specialists can intervene anywhere in the world in less than 24 hours after any sudden onset disaster or conflict and in a matter of minutes set up a satellite-based telecoms centre offering broadband Internet, phone and fax lines. These centres enable emergency NGO, the United Nations and local authorities to communicate right at the heart of event. They also facilitate the coordination of aid efforts. In parallel, TSF also runs humanitarian calling operation to offer support and assistance to affected civilians, giving them a link with the outside world from which they would be otherwise completely cut off.
Since its creation in 1998, TSF deployed to nearly 50 countries and assisted more than 350 relief organisations. In 2006, TSF became a partner of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). TSF is First Responder of the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).
Télécoms Sans Frontières is also a working group member of the United Nations emergency telecoms body (WGET). TSF is a partner of the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO) and a member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).
