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In the past several years, a series of initiatives related to the application of information technologies have been implemented in El Paují, with the common goal of giving democratic access to the use of technology and consequently making it accessible to a larger number of people.

But could we leave behind decades of delay and barriers to advance determinedly? How could we give children from remote and marginal areas the opportunity to access the internet and a universe of information and possibilities? How could we grant them immediate communication with children from other continents and in this way improve their educational experience? How could we improve support for a community’s sustainable development through electronic commerce?

To answer all these questions, ENUPA, the Foundation for the Education and Sustainable Development of El Paují, decided to look for a solid, feasible, and workable solution.

The research efforts of the last several years gave way to the formulation of a singular project of regional scale whose main objective is to interconnect the community’s schools in La Gran Sabana through wireles technologies and in this way turn our communities more intelligent, by offering them a series of services and applications such as: Distance Education, teleconferencing, telemedicine, internet, e-mail, e-commerce, among others.

This project constitutes the ideal alternative for remote communities with little possibilities for development.

It is based on the installation of an intelligent platform that integrates a series of technologies previously defined, through the diagnosis of the needs and potentialities of each community.

The platform is installed in the schools, being energetically self-sufficient and through a satellite is connected to the master station and the world. The applications that will host this Laboratory, together with the communal activities, will constitute the communal center for the XXI Century.

The number of students in the community schools at La Gran Sabana is very low, so when they get to seventh grade they have to move to Santa Elena or to other cities in the country to continue high school, if the economy in the family makes it possible. It is not feasible to have a high school in each village and have an acceptable education for the kids.

This is the reason we are proposing a distance education program, through a virtual schoolhouse networked to a master center connected to the world. The group of teachers trained in these technologies will provide high quality distance education to all the schools in the region.

What kind of education do we want to provide?
We want to provide an education that will research sustainable development and the consolidation of EcoVillages in the region, with the final objective: Recovering the Rio Caroni basin, which generates 70% of the electricity in Venezuela.

A type of education that will search for the needs and potentialities of each community and bio-region that will become as a result, educational, multidisiplinary projects. Not a fragmented education, but instead an integral learning experience that will respond to the needs and quests of the community.

The central subject will be sustainability through the following themes:

• Development of a curriculum in Permaculture (the sustainable farm).
• Make an inventory of natural and cultural resources of the bio-region.
• Consolidate the Pemón indian traditions, stimulating their crafts and folklore.
• Create a training program for the reforestation of the Rio Caroni Basin/ Inventory of flora/ Nursery management.
• Apiculture.
• Ecoturism
• The involvment of the students in the planning and installation of the community’s basic services: water supply, electrification, telecommunications.
• The consolidation of EcoVillages through training programs regarding the existing and potential productive activities that generate an economy based on Micro-businesses and Cooperatives.
• Make a record of all the experiences to be used as Educational documents or Data bank to be shared with the sorrounding communities and national and international institutions.

This project has its origin in real and urgent need to solve the "educational problem" in El Paují because the traditional educational model does not adapt to the reality of life in the world today, nor to the singular needs of our communities. As we observe the desertion and lack of motivation of our students caused by the lack of inapplicability of the learning experience with their reality, the frustrating impossibility to continue with higher education and the inability to surpass to a more dignified life condition.

All these bring us to create an educational model related to the activities and resources of the community and its outskirts, extending the classroom environment to the whole community and generating a bioregional consciousness.

So the strategic goals of our model are:

• Make the school the pilot initiation center.
• Install a media lab and telecomunication station.
• Implement a bilingual educational program which combines the school with the distance educational network, and exchange with schools and universities in the nation and other countries.
• Install a demonstration permacultural farm: Organic gardening, food forest, animal farm, alternative energy, water management, home building, medicinal plants, biodynamics,etc.
• Reforestation/ Inventory of Flora/Nursery.
• Apiculture as a proven alternative and forest pollinization agent.
• Install a craft shop for the development of the arts and crafts.
• Implement a curriculum on Eco-tourism.

In La Gran Sabana there are only 3 commmunities with mixed ethnic groups: Santa Elena, Icabarú and El Paují; the rest are mainly Pemón Indian. El Paují is recognized for its enthusiasm, integrative civil action, participation in school and ecological consciousness that have made it attractive to the visitor. In the other hand, the road will be paved soon. This road crosses through the headwaters of the Rio Caroni basin reinforcing the type of "development" that has been the strategy in the last decade: Mining, deforestation, destruction of the rivers, and detriment of the Pemón Culture. It is urgent to implement an ecologically sustainable alternative. We make a call to ecological institutions for moral and economic support. Please contact Arch. Manuel Matheus, representative of ENUPA, Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Educación y el Desarrollo Sostenible de El Paují: Manny_33143@yahoo.com.