Internet initiative in Ecuador thanks to UN Volunteers, World Bank
From Friday, January 03, 2003
Ecuador is making it online slowly with some of the aid organizations even getting involved according to this New York Times story (registration required):
Help may also come from the United Nations, which on Dec. 9 began an Internet initiative in Esmeraldas, one of Ecuador's most impoverished provinces. The project will be run by workers from the United Nations Volunteers and financed by the Ecuadorean government, the World Bank and Japan's International Cooperation Agency, offering "one-stop offices" where fishermen, artisans and other small-business owners can use the Web to find new markets.
In a country where the average person earns a mere $1,460 per year thanks to eBay a small group of Ecuadoreans, usually with ties to the US, are even finding it possible to become online entrepreneurs.
Mr. Cooper, who has lived in Quito with his Ecuadorean wife, Eulalia, for 23 years, bargained the price from $12 to $10, purchased the Navajo-style floor runner and lit a cigarette to celebrate: The rug will likely fetch $30 or more at auction on eBay, where he sells tapestries, baskets and religious relics at substantial markups. Mr. Cooper, who devotes 15 hours a week to buying, listing and shipping eBay items, clears roughly $1,300 a month from his online business, and up to $2,500 each November and December.