The origins of this book lie in a simple question: How best to show UNESCO’s friends and supporters the many exciting developments taking place in Community Access Centres across South Asia?

All around this region, innovative people and organisations are finding creative and practical ways to realise the vision of a knowledge society, and are increasingly doing it through Community Access Centres. UNESCO is passionately committed to supporting these Centres, because it sees them bringing to life the concepts of lifelong education for all and digital inclusion in some of the most isolated parts of South Asia.

This book highlights some aspects of human development that are significantly enhanced by Community Access Centres. These Centres take various forms and may go by various names: Community Learning Centres; Community Multimedia Centres; ICT Centres; Telecentres; Resource Centres or Community Libraries. It’s the local community that gets to decide on the exact form the Centre will take. But whatever their names are, the fundamental idea is the same: to help the community progress from access to engagement!

Community Access Centres provide support for breaking the chains of illiteracy or aiding the vocational skills of people displaced by conflict. They help young women improve their ability to express themselves and articulate their opinions via community radio or community television. They provide young people with useful marketable skills.

The Centres expose communities to new sources of knowledge and provide hands-on experience in the integration of new technologies, such as the Internet, with more traditional channels of communication. Community Access Centres are spaces where local communities translate the vision of human development in ways that make sense to their lives. The photos in this book will take you to the places where such wonderful things are happening!