Five communities were short listed and in the end only three were chosen to facilitate Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs). The three communities were chosen after an extensive screening assisted by agencies Local Initiative for Urban Environment (LIFE) and the Social Development Commission (SDC).

The three locations are Bath, St Thomas, Jeffrey Town St Mary and three towns within St Ann, that is, Pimento Walk, Snow Hill and Parry Town.

Community organizations within these three parishes were selected to participate in the CWB project. These were:

• Bath Community Development Council
• Jeffrey Town Farmers Association
• Hills United Development Organization

To learn more about the ICT Training in these communities, please click here

It is being undertaken by ICT4D Jamaica in partnership with the Container Project of Palmer’s Cross, Clarendon, HEART Trust / NTA ,International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and Ministry if Industry, Technology , Energy and Commerce (MITEC). The project also serves to inform and support the Community Outreach project of the Ministry of Industry, Energy Technology and Commerce (MITEC) programme on Community Access Points (CAPs) which is geared to the implementation and establishment of a number of community access points at various locations around the island.

At the incipient stages of the Communities Without Borders initiative, it was recognized that there were various types and models of community access points ranging from community centres, cybercafés, schools, post offices, larger supermarkets and NGO / CBO-based focal points and other privately owned computer / ICT centres.

Differing degrees of success have been achieved over a relatively short time span, nevertheless not enough documentation existed that underscored strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats that could have been evaluated from these established access points and in turn, the value of knowing the lessons that can be learnt are lost to those who want to travel up to the higher end of the development continuum.