DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Village Phones in Uganda

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Village Phones in Uganda
By Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, February 02, 2004

This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

A program in Uganda aims to provide telephone service to villages away from cities. Nineteen million people live in these communities. The goal is to provide service to a large part of them within five years.

The Grameen Foundation USA organized the program with MTN Uganda. That is the largest provider of telecommunications service in the country. The program is called "MTN villagePhone."

 
Uganda
Organizers have already given cellular² telephones to more than one-hundred people throughout Uganda. The people are called micro-entrepreneurs. They will charge other people to use the mobile phones. The organizers say they hope to train as many as three-thousand village telephone operators over the next three years.

Five Ugandan groups provided small loans to pay for the equipment. The operators are expected to repay³ the loans over a period of up to twelve months. Such loans are known as micro-finance. Most micro-finance groups charge interest. But they often use their earnings⁴ to reach more people.

The Grameen Foundation says operating the pay phone service will permit thousands of women to earn extra money for their families. It will also save business people and villagers money and time. The organizers estimate that a call that costs ten cents could save a person about one dollar in lost wages or business.

This is how much it would cost the person to take a day to travel to the nearest city to place the call. The phones could also help save lives. Villagers will be able to call for help in case of an emergency.

The project in Uganda is based on a program that the Grameen Foundation established in Bangladesh. The Grameen Telecom program began six years ago. Officials say it has permitted forty-thousand village operators to sell phone time to local citizens. Operators are said to earn about seven-hundred dollars a year. This is about two times the national average for wages in Bangladesh.

Ugandan officials say the village phone program will help connect farming villages to the world's information economy. They see the program as a step toward building support for private investment in developing countries. They say it is another way to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Cohen.

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

3 repay   

v.偿还，报答，还钱给

参考例句：

• I feel honor bound to repay the money I borrowed.我觉得有责任归还我借的钱。
• I must repay her for her kindness.我必须报答她的恩惠。

4 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。