Press release: Launching of a new website: MENGOS - Middle East NGOs Gateway

["INFO" <info@virtualactivism.net>]

Merry Christmas, season's greetings, and happy new year to everyone.
If you take the time to visit the site below, please take a look at the
Articles section about WSIS and Middle East NGO participation [or lack of??]
Marlyn
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Virtual Activism - Center for Knowledge Society

Press Release

ENG/ Jan/5/04

Virtual Activism would like to announce the launching of its new project
MENGOS, the Middle East Nongovernmental Organizations Gateway - Networking
Civil Society. MENGOS is a unique online project that aims at disseminating
information and promoting progressive human rights and development
initiatives in the Arab Middle East. It is the first online project that
focuses exclusively on the Middle East’s under represented and marginalized
NGOs, providing them with IT tools and knowledge that are specific to the
region, in order to support and strengthen their work.

MENGOS consists of a large database of NGOs who are both online and offline,
in member countries of the Arab League, and who work on progressive human
rights and development issues. It is a multi-lingual database
[Arabic/English/French] that allows Internet users to identify NGOs by name,
region, area of focus, and primary contact person in three languages. It
opens channels for donors to identify potential grantees, and opens channels
of communication and networking among nonprofit organizations throughout the
Middle East and beyond. To date, the database includes 1100 organizations
and is being updated on a daily basis. The Gateway also includes an
English/Arabic dictionary of select IT-related terms as well as articles and
news for and about NGOs in the region.

MENGOS is a project of Virtual Activism, a nonprofit organization registered
in the US, and its Cairo office, Center for Knowledge Society. Virtual
Activism aims at strengthening nongovernmental organizations' effectiveness
and outreach through Internet access and presence, as well as promoting
freedom of expression and privacy especially as they relate to information
technologies. MENGOS is consistent with Virtual Activism’s mission to help
close the digital divide.

To access MENGOS, please visit http://www.mengos.net Suggestions and
comments are always welcome.
For further information please contact
Marlyn Tadros, Executive Director and Project Manager
 info@virtualactivism.org and/or info@mengos.net