The Chelsea Pensioners, one of the country's best-known groups of seniors, are this week spearheading a national call to action to encourage their contemporaries to put and end to the digital divide. This coincides with the official launch of Intel's Cyber Café at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Two rooms within the 300 year-old walls of the Royal Hospital Building in Chelsea have been equipped with state-of-the-art workstations. Over the coming months the former soldiers will also benefit from an 11-week training scheme where they will be taught key computer skills, allowing some of them in turn to go on to encourage and teach others.
"The launch of the Cyber Café is a fantastic addition to our modernisation programme", said Sir Jeremy Mackenzie GCB OBE, Governor of the RHC. "Our Pensioners come from all over the world, as well as all over the UK, and now it will be easier for them to keep in contact with friends and family. Embracing technology plays a key role in stimulating the minds of older people, keeping them mentally active and allowing them to live richer lives. We see Internet usage as an important form of occupational therapy."
The new Cyber Café is being hailed as a "godsend" by the Pensioners, some of whom have already experienced the wide-ranging benefits that computers and the Internet bring to people of their generation.
"Living in a community where our every need is cared for, it is easy to fall into the trap of slowing down and avoiding new challenges. To maintain general health and well-being, it is vital to keep mentally active. Access to the Internet will help many of us look for new experiences and develop new interests," said 76-year-old Chelsea Pensioner John C. Carbis.
Lee Osbourne-Wakley MBE, 75, strongly agrees: "I've always been a keen gardener and my allotment at the RHC gives me great pleasure, however, I want to continue to learn new things. Through using the Internet on my own laptop, I have learnt how to grow strawberries and grapes and I'm looking forward to my first batch next year!"
Research shows that computer literacy among the over 50s in the UK is alarmingly low, with only a third (35 per cent) of over 50s knowing how to use a PC or the Internet1. This is a phenomenon which needs addressing, given that a third of the country's population is currently over 50, and more than half will be by 2020.
Anand Chandrasekher, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Intel who officially opened the Intel Cyber Café today, commented: "As a leading industry player, our aim is to encourage older people to join the digital era by showing them how easy it is to master computers and the benefits they can bring. 70 per cent of the UK's over 50s are currently excluded from the advantages that computers and the Internet offer. Paradoxically, it is precisely this age group who have the most to gain."
The opening of the Cyber Café at the Royal Hospital Chelsea is the first step in Intel's UK-wide campaign to encourage PC and Internet usage among over 50s. Intel is also an active member of the Government's Home Computing Initiative which aims to encourage PC usage across the nation.
