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Gates Foundation Awards $1 Million to South Africa's “Smart Cape”The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation presented its fourth annual Access to Learning Award August 5 to the Smart Cape Access Project of Cape Town, South Africa, during the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions conference in Berlin, Germany.Implemented just last year, Smart Cape aims to provide free access to computers and the Internet to the people of Cape Town, beginning with 30 computers in six libraries. The $1-million award “will help us expand our efforts and bring the project to the remaining 101 libraries in the city,” said Cape Town Executive Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, accepting the award in Berlin along with Deputy Executive Mayor Pierre Uys, Chief Information Officer Nirvesh Sooful, and Mymoena Ismail, manager of the program. “Smart Cape has made impressive strides in improving public access to information in Cape Town,” said Carol Erickson, senior program officer for the Gates Foundation's international library initiatives. She added that it's the city's first effort to offer free access to patrons in disadvantaged neighborhoods who might not otherwise have access. . The foundation has given the international award, which is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources, to organizations in Finland, Guatemala, Argentina, and Colombia. The award was established to recognize and assist “an outstanding library, library agency, or similar organization that provides patrons with no-cost public access to information in innovative and useful ways.” Posted August 11, 2003. |
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