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UN-supported 'Netaid' web project wins multimedia award

UN-supported 'Netaid' web project wins multimedia award

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The United Nations-supported web project called NetAid has won a DigiGlobe 2001 award for its use of the Internet to help end extreme poverty.

The award by Deutsche Telekom and FOCUS magazine was presented to David Morrison, President of the NetAid Foundation, in Berlin yesterday.

"It is a great honor to receive this recognition," Mr. Morrison said. "It is a tribute to the commitment of many partner organizations and tens of thousands of people who have mobilized through NetAid to help meet the needs of people in extremely poor communities."

The DigiGlobe award acknowledges multimedia developments that can help simplify living for future generations and promote a better appreciation of modern technologies. NetAid won in the category "Society and Modern Life." The jury selected the 2001 winners from 21 nominated projects in seven categories.

NetAid was formed out of a collaboration between the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Cisco Systems. It was launched with high profile rock concerts and began enabling direct support to local development organizations fighting extreme poverty via the NetAid website in April 2000.

Through NetAid, individuals, companies, schools and organizations can donate funds to specific local development projects, read stories about real families and communities coping with extreme poverty, learn more about issues of extreme poverty, interact with other supporters, and volunteer to help local development organizations.

The prize in the "Business and Politics" category went to the "Peace-Building Corps" project, an Internet platform for the execution of peace-promoting measures. The idea for the project was the brainchild of Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres, whose Peres Center for Peace is creating the platform.

Winners in other categories included the University of Ulm's Clinic for Neurosurgery for its development of a technique for the removal of tumorous brain tissue, the Revolution Company for its "EyeVision" camera technology that conveys an almost three-dimensional perspective of televised sporting events, and the "Stern für Kinder" project, which enables hospitalized children to remain in contact with parents, friends and children in other hospitals, via an intranet system.