The Digital Unify is ST Foundation’s major program. It aims at spreading the benefits of digital technology, by providing free of cost both the technology as well as the basic training to those who have no knowledge of how to use a personal computer and access the internet.

The DU goal is helping to bridge the digital divide, that is the gap between those who have access to modern digital technologies and those who do not.

It consists of the setting up of computer training centers by the Foundation, in collaboration with local partners such as schools, NGOs, local administrations and the like, and the spearheading of a computer literacy course created by ST employees.

The Informatics and Computer Basics (ICB) course covers notions of hardware, software, file system and graphical user interface, personal productivity tools, and internet access, basic quality and security practices, and relevant rights and obligations.

The course is cascaded to the local community through the Train the trainers program: volunteer ST trainers train staff or volunteers provided by the local partner, through the Informatics Computer Basics Facilitation (ICBF) course, and they in turn cascade the computer literacy course to the community.

The local partner also guarantees access to the learning center, outside course hours, to trainees and to those who have completed the course.

Agrate ICB

The ICB course is currently available, free of royalties, in English, French, Hindi, Italian and Thai. Today, the Digital Unify is active in 14 countries.

It counts over 1,200 trainers worldwide. More than 40,000 people have successfully completed the ICB course and can have free access to computers and the internet as of 2007.

The aim is to provide both the technology and computer literacy training to one million people in the next 10 years.

You may learn more about locations, how to join the DU and beneficiaries’ testimonies by clicking on dedicated links on the right-hand column.