Oleksandr Maksymchuk Takes part in the Improving People’s Access to Information in Ukraine National Prospects Forum
22 February 2008 13:16
February 22, 2008, Head of the Board of Directors of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund Oleksandr Maksymchuk took part in the Role of the Internet in Ukraine for Improving the Life Quality plenary session held as part of the Improving People’s Access to Information in Ukraine National Prospects Forum. Among other participants of the event, hosted by the Kyiv Vozdvyzhensky hotel, were Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism Olha Bench, Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries program Martha Choe, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Ukraine William Taylor, President of the International Research & Exchanges Board Mark Pomar, President of the Library Association of Ukraine Valentyna Pashkova, and Director of the Global Libraries Ukraine project Colin Guard. The Forum was organized by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Global Libraries Ukraine project.
In his speech Mr. Maksymchuk said that modern technologies, in part, the internet, give people additional opportunities in all life spheres, allowing quickly and efficiently increase one’s knowledge on certain subjects. In this context, he described internet resources supported by the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund, speaking in more detail about Ukraine’s only museum web portal, The Museum Space of Ukraine.
Mr. Maksymchuk emphasized the importance of the topic discussed at the Forum and proposed to the organizers to resume the discussion at the events scheduled by the Ukraine 3000 Fund as part of their educational programs: the Generations’ Dialog, Cultures’ Dialog International Forum to be held in May and the Global Educational Forum to bed held by the Fund and UNESCO in September 2008.
The Forum took place February 22, 2008. It featured the following sections: Role of the Internet in Achieving Ukraine’s Developmental Goals, Ukrainian Libraries Reform: from Book Storage to a Public Informational Center, and Different Ukraine: What Are People to Do to Become Internet Writers instead of Passive Users? Representatives of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund took part in the Forum.
IREX is an international non-profit organization, introducing leadership and innovations programs aimed at developing education quality, strengthening independent media, and supporting the civil society development. The organization was founded in 1968 and is working in over 50 countries. IREX has been working on free access to computer technologies for the last 15 years. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose the IREX to plan a program securing the Ukrainians access to computers and the internet at public libraries.
The Global Libraries is a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s project aimed at helping public libraries to provide free access to the IT for the people. The project helps to transform the libraries into a vital tool able to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands people. Within the framework of the Global Libraries Ukraine project, throughout 2008 the IREX will cooperate with the Library Association of Ukraine, the government, and local authorities, along with NGOs, to work out a joint plan of providing internet access to millions of Ukrainians.
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