Harnessing IT to help urban poor

More than 3,000 residents of the Petaling Utama low-cost flats in Jalan PJS 1/52, off Old Klang Road, and nearby areas stand to benefit from an information and communications technology (ICT) development pilot project that will be implemented by Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS) and the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ).  

YSS executive director Dr Denison Jayasooria said the E-Upcom Bridging Digital Divide (BDD) project, to be implemented over 12 months, would be under the supervision of the Rural Development and the Housing and Local Government Ministries.  

“E-Upcom stands for Urban Poor Community Organising And Mobili-sing.  

“The project is aimed at helping to uplift the socio-economic status of the residents here and eradicate social ills,” he said at a press conference on the pilot project on Wednesday. Jayasooria said the project would include the setting up of an IT centre at Block C of the Petaling Utama low-cost flats. “Fifteen computers will be delivered to the IT centre after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between MIMOS Bhd, MPPJ and YSS within the next two weeks,” he said.

Jayasooria also outlined the three main strategies in implementing the project which were the development of an E-Upcom portal, training activities and public awareness programmes.

“The E-Upcom portal will provide services such as business advice and job-matching services. Training activities include programmess to motivate youths to stay in school and to provide school dropouts with basic web development and IT skills,” he said.

“Public awareness programmes include educating the public on the issues faced by the urban poor and how they can help make a difference. This will be conducted at primary and secondary schools, shopping malls, public meeting halls and offices of NGOs,” added Jayasooria.

He said RM1.4mil would be allocated for the project by the National Information Technology Council under its Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS), a funding scheme to facilitate the social and economic progress of Malaysians. 

Jayasooria added that Petaling Utama, with its 854 low-cost housing units, was chosen for the project because of the high number of low-income families there.

“The aggregate racial breakdown here is Malays (40%), Indians (50%) and Chinese (10%). YSS has been working with the various Rukun Tetangga here in social development projects since 1997,” he said. Also present was MPPJ president Datuk Abdul Karim Munisar, who hoped the project would help to narrow the digital divide between the urban poor and mainstream society. 

“The residents here must help to support the project by giving their full participation. It will be a waste if there is poor response from the community once the project’s infrastructure has been set up,” he said.