As part of its ICT Capacity Building program for member NGOs, the secretariat donated two sets of used computers from its Northern Mindanao office to the Mainland Development Center (MDC) last November 12, 2008. Mr. Bebot Crucio, acting Executive Director of MDC formally received the hardware from RC Abando in a simple turnover ceremonies witnessed by members of the local secretariat and MDC staff.

It can be recalled that the MDC office lost last year many of its office equipments and properties from a looting incident. This deprived MDC with the much needed resources and equipments such as computers and printers to pursue its operations. Last August, MDC participated in the website development course sponsored by PhilDHRRA to ensure online presence of its members. Together with other NGOs, an MDC website was set up as a product of the training, plus two of its staff was trained in website development and maintenance. PhilDHRRA further subsidized the hosting fees of the NGO websites for two years. In two separate occasions, MIS and Database trainings were also conducted for members this year. For MDC however, the benefits of a website and the capacities earned from the PhilDHRRA sponsored ICT trainings are of no use without the appropriate hardware to house their software assets.

It is amidst these difficulties that the Secretariat had decided to donate some of its unused computers to MDC as an aid to a member. RC Abando contends that no amount of ICT training is valued without the proper venue for application of newfound ICT skills. For MDC, the availability of the computer units would be that venue. This further heightened their excitement to use the medium to boost their communication capacities, improve its operational efficiency and enhance institutional visibility through online presence and wise use of social media tools they learned from the PhilDHRRA ICT training series.

As RC Abando explains, the ICT training series sponsored by the network for the year is just the 1^st phase of the program, and part of the efforts of the network for NGOs to comfortably embrace technology in the regular functioning of their office. The 2^nd phase would be more exciting and challenging as the network intends to build members’ capacities in actually integrating ICTs in their rural development work as well as in their fight against poverty.

Last year, the secretariat transferred management and maintenance of its computers, printers and motorcycles from previous projects to four member NGOs in Caraga, with the support of donor InteRED and AECID.