Nonprofit uses technology to aid world's poor

SAMMAMISH -- Akhtar Badshah is aiming to tap the power of the digital economy to benefit the world's poor.

He is doing it through a Seattle-based nonprofit organization he heads called Digital Partners.

The group has chapters in other parts of the world, but the spotlight so far has been on Badshah's birth country, India.

``I am privileged to have received education in both India and U.S.,'' said Badshah, who has lived and studied in the United States for more than 21 years and now lives in Sammamish. ``It is payback time. I think every child, in India and around the world, should have the opportunity to use his mind.''

Badshad, an architect by training, said he decided to form Digital Partners after wondering, ``Why is cutting-edge software developed in the First World pirated immediately by developing countries and used to their advantage, but not innovative ideas and practices?''

It is this exchange of ideas that Badshah is striving for between two different worlds.

``When we started in 1999, India was at the helm of the information technology revolution, and some of its best and brightest minds were here in the United States,'' Badshah said.

``This is when we thought, why not link the acumen of these highly successful IT entrepreneurs to combat poverty and unemployment in their home countries in a very personal and innovative way.''

After all, one-fourth of the world's poverty stricken live in India and one-third of the world's software workers are from India, according to Digital Partners' Web site.

These successful entrepreneurs are making a lot of money at a young age and mostly hail from India's middle class. Having worked their way up, they can relate to social issues more easily and are looking for ways to give back.

Badshah believes it is possible to involve what he called ``young digital Turks'' and use the market dynamics of the digital economy to create and fund new opportunities to empower the poor.

The primary focus of Digital Partners is to support efforts in the areas of education, health and economic empowerment.

The organization identifies capable and distinguished social entrepreneurs -- businesses and organizations -- interested in engaging IT and markets in service of the poor. A team of local managers and technical advisors provide the ground technical, managerial, and investment support to help ideas become viable ventures.

Support from the Kellogg Foundation, Open Society Institute and individual contributors, in collaboration with the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme and CARE, helps Digital Partners operate chapters in Boston, New York, San Diego, Silicon Valley and New Delhi, India. Plans are afoot to set up offices in Mexico City and Ghana.

Another Digital Partners project is called ``The Global Classmates,'' which seeks to create cross-cultural and contextual learning experiences for students in Washington state with fellow students in developing countries.

The project takes advantage of the opportunities that information technologies provide to build bridges between cultures and create new ways of learning and teaching that can effectively serve more of the world's children.

``It is the meeting of the young minds that is important,'' said Badshah in describing the project. ``Communication and understand each other is a prerequisite to being a global citizen.''