[WSIS CS-Plenary] BFA at ICT4D

[Matthias Bachmann]

Dear participant at the WSIS



Bread for All is present at the ICT4D with a stand (number 251,
Communication for Development Street: http://www.mediatower.ch/ict_v3/#).
Please find here below some information on what we display and who we are.
We look forward to welcome you at the stand.



Kind regards,



Matthias Bachmann


The Project
Access to information and communication is a precondition for development.
Currently, the new ICTs are a distant dream for most people. Therefore,
Bread for All (BFA) empowers poor people to set up and maintain their own
channels of information and communication. At the WSIS, BFA presents its
research, policy and project efforts regarding international information and
communication structures and, through a multimedia presentation at the ICT4D
and the community media event (12/12/2003), two community radio projects it
supports:


  a.. Rádio Diamante FM: in Diamante (Maranhão/Brazil), where daily
newspapers are unavailable, Diamante FM enables landless peasants to have
access to and participate in the editing of news and essential practical
hints about agriculture and health care.
  b.. Network of basic radio wave-based communication stations in the Kwango
area (DRC): the network constitutes almost the only means of communication
and information in this very poor and remote region, thereby contributing
considerably to its development.


The Organization

BFA is the development agency of the Federation of Swiss Protestant
Churches. Operating since 1961, it supports over 400 development projects
and programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America and lobbies authorities,
parliament and the economic sector in Switzerland and worldwide for a more
equitable development framework. BFA networks within Switzerland as well as
internationally with other church and non-church based NGOs to achieve the
objectives in its four areas of activity:


  a.. Fund-raising: gaining financial resources for development projects and
programmes
  b.. Development projects: ensuring quality assurance for development
projects
  c.. Development policy: researching and lobbying for a just international
economic, political and social order, particularly in fair trade and access
to information and communication
  d.. Information, education and campaigning: informing and providing
knowledge about development policy questions for the public at large,
particularly in Switzerland



Matthias Bachmann
Brot fuer alle -  Pain pour le prochain - Bread for all
Entwicklungsdienst der Evangelischen Kirchen der Schweiz
Monbijoustrasse 29, Postfach 5621,
CH-3001 Bern, Schweiz
fon +41 31 380 65 69
fax +41 31 380 65 64
e-mail bachmann at bfa-ppp.ch
http://www.bfa-ppp.ch