Nzelu aims to educate young people in the use of computers and internet in order to improve their professional skills. It is a project of the Zambian non-governmental organisation Thandizani, that runs HIV/AIDS programs, and has received a start-up subsidy for the cyber café from Unicef. Patricia Vieveen, marketing executive at Intermax, explains why her firm got involved with this cyber café, "One of the initiators of this project is an acquaintance of Intermax. She comes from Rotterdam, and works in Zambia as a volunteer. As Intermax itself started off, in 1994, as a firm delivering free acces to internet and e-mail to inhabitants of the Dutch town of Vlaardingen, we feel compelled to support a similar initiative in Zambia. At the same time it serves as a kind of reality check for Intermax, to find out what is happening in the rest of the world." Apart from the expertise, Intermax is donating a few thousand Euros ("we prefer not to publicize the exact amount") for the purchase of the hardware for the cyber café.
The two managers of Intermax will not only give training in the use of internet, Word and Excell, but will also train technical personnel in maintenance.
According to Patricia Vieveen, the contribution of Intermax can be considered as an expressison of its corporate social responsibility, although the firm does not yet have an explicit policy in that field. "We are considering to continue our contribution to Nzelu, for instance by facilitating training to new groups of students. But this depends on their demands."

P+ webtip: Intermax