The Toronto-based Mastercard Foundation has announced a C$3.7 million ($2.7 million) commitment to the Indigenous Connectivity Institute (ICI) to connect Indigenous communities to fast, affordable, and sustainable internet and to improve digital skills.

The gift will help ICI scale its work to provide Indigenous communities with the capacity, skills, and access to the capital they need to deploy and maintain their own networks. Over the next three years, the gift will enable ICI to reach 10,000 Indigenous young people.

According to the foundation, Indigenous communities across North America are among the least connected and most underserved on the continent, and inadequate internet access creates barriers for many Indigenous young people, including to education, training, remote employment, and the pursuit of entrepreneurship opportunities.

“To be without adequate broadband in today’s world is to be shut out from opportunities to learn, earn, build businesses, and shape society. Yet, Indigenous communities across North America still live without the reliable, affordable internet they need. The Indigenous Connectivity Institute supports the growing movement of Indigenous broadband champions working to change that,” said ICI Advisory Council member Darrah Blackwater. “This support from the Mastercard Foundation has the potential to advance Indigenous digital equity beyond our imaginations and make real the projects and collaboration we’ve been dreaming up for years. I am so excited to see this new partnership in action.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Aydinmutlu)