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hile the world continues to look at South Africa's remarkable political transformation with hope and wonder, a few kids in Nelson Mandela Township, or Nemato, are quietly looking back at the world and speaking up through cyberspace. After a South African bank donated and installed seven used PCs in the local police station, the disadvantaged youths in this mostly black community began communicating via email with other kids in far-off Malaysia, Australia, and Argentina."The project has opened all sorts of doors," says Californian George Berhitoe, one of the founders of the Nemato Computer Laboratory. Email is helping kids learn how to use computers and is giving them a chance to practice English, which the government says they must all learn to speak, read, and write by 1999. It's also making new connections locally. Volunteers of all races have pitched in to make the lab, which is open to all residents of the surrounding area, a success. The township's three computer experts provide technical support, and the "church ladies" of the Presbyterian Women's Guild donate supplies. "These people have really had it tough," George Berhitoe remarks. But based on the example of the Nemato Computer Laboratory, he adds, "I'm actually more optimistic about South Africa than when I came."
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