Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 5
An eNGO platform under the initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is all set to empower Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Nagaland in the form of scaling up the activities of NGOs through website, and to make their presence across the globe.
A workshop for the related purpose took place here today under the aegis of Youthnet in association with North East Development Foundation and supported by Government of Nagaland. 46 NGOs registered for the same. In north east, Nagaland will become the second state after Meghalaya to come under such networking.
Gracing the workshop here this morning at Working Women’s Hostel, Alemtemshi Jamir, IAS, additional chief secretary and development commissioner termed such networking as “very important exercise” and hoped that it would make lot of difference in the functioning of NGOs in the state. Jamir stated that the government will also see in what way it can assist in creating website. He told the workshop that the government recognizes NGOs as “very important sector” for helping the entire society to grow. “Government is looking at NGOs” he said adding that they are contributing immensely to socio- economic development.
eNGO is a web enabled platform for grassroots civil society and Non-Governmental Organisations. It is a cost effective web platform and service delivery with free of cost domain space and thereby facilitating hundreds and thousands of such grassroots organization to have a virtual identity and information and communication platform for outreach and scale up. DEF has engaged NIXI to propel this eNGO programme targeting NGOS/CBOs/SHGs. The programme, with support from NIXI, is aimed at capacity building of grassroots organisations in ICT enablement. NIXI provides in registry free for target organisations for five years. This way local content is being generated and encouraged for bottom up information and communication services needs.
There are currently more than 1.2 million NGOs/CBOs and Self Help Groups in India and the majority of them do not have a proper webpage. Most of the NGOs working at the grassroots level thus remain unknown and do not earn the appreciation and benefit coming from sources that can provide tremendous energy to them. This anonymity might have been caused for reasons like lack of finance, expertise and foresight.
eNGO is for hundreds of grassroots civil society and community building organizations active in India and in need of a visible virtual identity and presence across the globe. It is designed for those grassroots organizations who wants to reach out to maximum stakeholders beyond its immediate community and also for those who is in need of a virtual identity and presence in this age of globalization and networking. eNGO is also for those community building organizations who is cost strapped to avail a range of web services at an affordable costs with a customized package. The workshop will culminate on August 6 at 2 PM with an address by KT Sukhalu, IAS, secretary, IT and TE.
