Kidlink Houses - Brazil

Kidlink's portal for NGOs [click here] offers:

• A step-by-step presentation of what it takes to set up a KHouse, with templates for pre-feasibility and feasibility studies;
• A PowerPoint presentation of Brazilian KHouse experiences;
• A link to the infoDev exchange Newsletter article on Kidlink's work and model;
• A 45-minute presentation (15 slides plus speaker notes) for KHouse project decision makers, evaluators, funders, pre-feasibility team members, potential second-tier partners, and others with a potential interest in the pre-planning stage.

KHouses include the following components:

• The lab is open at least two hours on a certain weekday for kids who come from a school as part of a group with their teachers, or from different places (streets, hospitals, etc.)
• The lab is open for kids who come without teachers, or adult coaches. They sign up formally, and come whenever they need or want. This model works like a library.
• Groups of senior citizens interact by email with KHouse kids. Besides learning about technology and participating in projects, they communicate among them themselves.

Development Issues
Children, Education, Technology.

The first KHouse was opened in March 1996, in the RioData Centro of PUC-RJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A KHouse is a cultural center whose doors are open to the public. There is a computer lab that offers connections to the Internet.

The KHouse may also be a weekly "time slot" in someone's computer lab or Internet café. For example, it may function as a KHouse on Monday evenings, and serve a university's students during the rest of the week.

KHouses render educational Kidlink services to economically less favored groups, like students from poor public schools and individual youth without access to computers and the Internet.