Communities

Lincos Communities

LINCOS was a project that sought based on its philosophy, providing communities with the best possible development opportunities. We installed this philosophy in several places, among which we highlighted our country, Costa Rica, and internationally, the Dominican Republic.

Each project was different from each other. Identity was always promoted, thereby achieving the empowerment and satisfaction of varying community needs. There are LINCOS where educational activities predominated, in other business activities. However, the education program was defined as a common denominator because it integrates the rest of the parties. Looking for communities to seek alternative solutions to their needs, which in turn, they found through the use of This set of applications the material and technical means to generate processes of change in your community. These processes resulted in the improvement of opportunities, quality of life of their family, and in leaving future generations the possibility of enjoying greater well-being in their community.

Costa Rica Communities

Río Frío

With funding provided by the CRUSA Foundation, the Río Frío project started in 2004 as a comprehensive approach project. Located in the Caribbean area, in a banana plantation, the Río Frío project had several widely developed components: Business, Computer Education, Business, and Environment.

Since its inauguration, an essential series of activities ranged from Workshops for the use and use of Office Tools (Microsoft Office), to courses in biodiversity, electronic commerce, among others.

San Marcos Tarrazú

Originally the Project of San Marcos de Tarrazú in the Southeast of the Province of San José in a purely coffee zone was the first LINCOS project. It was built with donations from INTEL, Microsoft, the AVINA Foundation, and contributions from the community. Start with a traditional LINCOS program since 2000, initially located in Barrio el Rodeo, a marginal neighborhood of the Community of San Marcos. It is undoubtedly one of the most successful projects of the Foundation, visited by thousands of people from many countries and prestigious National and International Universities; his images went around the world. Several years later and at the request of the members of the same community, the project moved to the headquarters of the Cantonal Agricultural Center in the center of the city of San Marcos de Tarrazú. The new project focused on the issues of management and entrepreneurship aimed to support the development of SMEs in the area.

The project quickly became a Project and Business Incubator. A strategic point of convergence for helping Small and Medium Enterprises, support to the commerce area, support to enterprising women who join their efforts to create and sell handicrafts at a national and international level. LINCOS has helped training on issues about electronic commerce. LINCOS - San Marcos was chosen as one of the Innovative and Sustainable Projects of the area, where its managers bet their efforts on the talent of the city.

Santa María de Dota

With the help of the Costa Rica Foundation for Sustainable Development and funds from INTEL and Microsoft, this project started in 2004. Located in the Valley of the Saints about 60 kilometers northeast of the Capital, the experience of Santa Maria de Dota It was somewhat different from traditional projects. Thanks to the help of MIT Media LAB, Coopedota, INCAE, and CEMEDCO, an innovative concept based on the theory of social networks. With this project, we wanted to promote the communication of ideas through Technology, including the use of Wi-Fi, mobile SMS, Beeper, E-mail, and all those tools available that favored the connection of community members. On the other hand, the other sister organizations of the project, such as the Municipality, promoted their efforts in the permanent realization of training workshops for both children and older adults.

San Joaquín de Cutris

This project started in 2001 thanks to a donation from the Flora Family Foundation (Hewlett Packard). In a very rural area where cassava cultivation is the center of community business. The LINCOS project became an opportunity to improve the chances for the people of this small town located in the northern border area of Costa Rica. The team decided to transform the LINCOS concept, and the technological equipment moved to the headquarters of the local School. With this, the installation of a Computer Laboratory was achieved with some computers, a scanner, cameras and robotics kits and other educational technologies, which gave the School a series of tools and therefore opportunities for and the students, which allow them to make significant progress on their digital divide problems and their low schooling problems. We found difficulty inserting these tools in the past, precisely because of the problem of low-schooling. In the medium-term, this community implemented methodologies that favored the sensitization of the people about the use and appropriation of technology in teaching, business, health, ecological processes, among others.

International Communities

Dominican Republic

Since 2000, through the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, the LINCOS-RD project was initiated to incorporate information technology into Dominican social programs.

The supreme objective of the Dominican project was to incorporate the Sustainable Human Development of remote communities not privileged with access to communication and information technologies. It was achieved through innovative pedagogical strategies that guaranteed meaningful learning in business, health, environment, community issues.

At the time, the installation of the LINCOS Project was carried out in containers, equipped with the highest technology, in addition to a canopy, training packages, personal and community development workshops. There were also radio stations, videoconferencing services, telemedicine, water, and soil analysis. In some cases, they collaborated with telephony to provide communication through the project.

Since its launch until today, LINCOS in the Dominican Republic has evolved, through powerful empowerment processes. To date, more than 25 centers have been installed throughout the Dominican territory, especially in the border area with Haiti.

Located in permanent cement infrastructures, building type, the Dominican projects were provided with computer networks with Internet access, learning rooms, radio stations, room for technical-pedagogical children's games, library and various services to meet community needs (printing, photocopying , etc.).

For some years, the name "Community Technology Centers" was adopted, and the program (CTC) worked hand in hand with the Office of the First Lady of the Republic, Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández.

The Community Technology Centers followed the initial philosophy of LINCOS, the search for local development, based on innovative strategies in education, offering opportunities to communities through training, workshops, and technology transfer activities, which is lasting and meaningful. All through the methodology by projects that gave successful results in the communities and served to dignify and enhance the quality of life for people where the CTCs were installed.