UPS brings more than packages to tiny Eastern European villages

UPS, the world’s largest package delivery corporation, recently finished constructing a state-of-the-art computer lab in three small village schools in Ukraine and Poland, the SW News Herald reports.

The villagers had never seen a computer, much less heard of the Internet, before the lab was built. This relatively new program called “People to People” helps connect young people in other countries with the rest of the world through technology.

The towns of Lipa and Sierakosce in Poland and the village of Nizankowice in neighboring Ukraine received donated computers, Internet hook-up and funding for repairs to schools, as well as computer training. The program also includes a cultural exchange component and will fly a special delegation of elementary school children from these villages to Chicago, beginning Friday to continue learning about the world outside their villages.

During their stay in Chicago, the children will be immersed in the city's culture as they march in the Polish Constitution Day Parade in celebration of the city’s Polish heritage. Some of the cultural exchange activities scheduled for the delegation includes a visit to Nike Town, a behind-the-scenes tour of a UPS facility, a meeting with Polish American students there who will give them a tour of a typical American school and the computer lab. The students will also participate in e-mail pen-pal program using the computer equipment and training they gained through the UPS program.