DOT programs empower people of all backgrounds with confidence in using technology for individual and community development. We believe that the key is to make technology meaningful and relevant to people’s day-to-day lives.

Information and Communications technology for development (often referred to as ICT-for-Development) is jargon for the global concern about the imperative to bridge the so-called 'digital divide'. The term is used in the corridors of policy development in the context of those large populations around the world that have not yet been able to tap into the full benefits of technology and information that is now a daily habit to most in the most developed regions.

If you have ever wondered about all the talk about how ICTs can break the poverty cycle, it comes down to this: ICTs are basic tools for any enterprise in the new economy. But access to tools alone is insufficient to support development. Creating livelihoods and building enterprise requires that people have command of technology. Billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure to get ICTs plugged in to more of the world. Digital Opportunity Trust is a low-cost, high-impact organization that secures such investments by making sure people plug in to that technology through the delivery of training by Interns.

DOT recruits and trains talented young people and women from partner countries to become Interns.  Through a trainer-to-trainer approach, we teach them leadership, project management, facilitation, communication, teamwork and technology. The Interns then set out into their home communities, where they share and transfer their knowledge through practical projects that respond to community needs.

DOT has implemented programs in Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon,  Kenya and the USA, and is launching its education-based program in China in the fall of 2008 and its entrepreneurial-based program in Turkey in 2009.