With great pride and humility, I present to you, smartBridges Foundation. Launched early this year, sB Foundation's mission is to bridge the digital divide in rural areas and emerging nations.

Imagine this – a sugar cane farmer living in a remote village in South East Asia has just been introduced to a Common Service Center (CSC) or Internet Café. As a Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE), he decides to leverage the capabilities of the Internet by learning new techniques in sugar cane farming, researching new products that could automate his tedious work, and networking with buyers who would be interested in sourcing sugar cane for their products. As he further educates himself, he begins using business-to-business web portals to promote his sugar cane fields while harnesing social networking websites such as Facebook to create a presence for himself - this in turn multiples his sources of income and improves his social and economic well-being. Does this sound too far fetched? Absolutely not, it is happening as we speak, however, at a much slower rate than we would hope. Rural communities are merely lacking a tool (broadband connectivity), and with the aid of sB Foundation, it will not be long before the benefits of the information superhighway are granted to everyone.

We feel extremely inspired and honored by the opportunity to contribute to the mission of sB Foundation, thus I'll conclude this note with a quote – “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Sincerely,

Dinesh Daswani
simplyFi Editor