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February 11, 2000THE TRUST FOR THE AMERICAS WINS TWO IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
The Trust for the Americas, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Organization of American States through its Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD), received awards from the World Bank’s infoDev and Development Marketplace for its Net Corps Americas project "I.T.: Employment for People with Disabilities."
This project will send high-tech volunteers to Central America to train people with disabilities to use the new information technologies. The project was awarded a total of $139,000 - $89,000 from the Development Marketplace and $50,000 from infoDev. "This project is the first step by The Trust for the Americas to implement the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the OAS at its General Assembly in 1999", said the Trust’s Executive Director Susan Benson. Approximately three hundred finalists, out of some 1,500 proposals, participated in the two-day competition at the World Bank. Forty-five were selected to receive the Development Marketplace Award and two received the infoDev award. The Trust’s project "Collective Action against Corruption" also competed as a finalist. The goal of the Development Marketplace’s competition is to foster innovative ideas in the development community. For its part, infoDev is a global grant program managed by the World Bank that aims to address obstacles facing developing countries in an increasingly information-driven world economy. The Trust for the Americas was established in 1997 to create public-private partnerships for the Organization of American States and to implement the mandates of the Summits of the Americas. The Trust initiatives concern three main themes: Transparency, Connectivity, and Leadership. For further information see: http://www.trustfortheamericas.org http://www.netcorpsamericas.org http://www.leadamericas.org