Intel launches philanthropic project in China's Sichuan

AFTER BILL GATES made charity and philanthropy über-trendy in the world of Tech, Craig Barrett has now taken up the baton, with Intel launching an ambitious new programme in earthquake devastated Sichuan.

Craig Barrett, Intel’s jet-setting Chairman, met with members of China’s Sichuan provincial government today, where he launched a company-sponsored project dubbed “Iworld” (we sense an Apple lawsuit in the works), whose main goal is purportedly to rebuild and restore services obliterated by last month’s deadly quake.

Iworld will start by setting up 200 teched-out 'e-classrooms', which Intel hopes will help in the effort to get Sichuan’s kids back to school again. Equipped with Intel Inside computers and super high speed Internet connections, the company hopes the new classrooms will help the people of Sichuan link up to the outside world. But whether Chinese authorities and their censorship policies make that vision a possibility remains to be seen.

In a touching and exemplary move, Chipzilla will also purportedly be donating $ 6.9 million, coughed up by the firm’s own generous employees and supplemented by the Intel Foundation. Intel employee volunteers are also reported to be hiking up their shirt sleeves in order to do their bit in reconstructing the local community.

Speaking at Iworld’s signing ceremony, Barrett noted "we are proud that Intel technology can accelerate the return of prosperity."

Still, not a company to let natural disasters go to waste, Chipzilla hopes to use the momentum to get its "Intel teach programme" up and running in across eight severely-affected counties in Sichuan within a year. So far only a million of China’s teachers have undergone Intel’s re-education programme.

Barrett noted that Intel had been active in China for over 20 years and that he was therefore "particularly proud to see our advanced technology and tireless volunteers supporting local communities and instilling confidence in the reconstruction process." He encouraged more of the company’s employees to leave their cubicles and continue the local community effort. µ