“I do not understand how [Internet] coverage works, but I do know that I want this project in our community,” said Nadia Macz Sel, a representative from a savings and entrepreneurship program in Guatemala. “I want my kids to have access to electricity, Internet, and a computer. It might be too late for me, but it is not too late for them.”

Earlier this year, Nadia and her colleagues met with New Sun Road—a company specializing in accelerating renewable energy deployment and access for remote communities—to discuss a joint USAID-Microsoft initiative striving to close the gender digital divide and increase digital opportunities for Indigenous women in the Alta Verapaz region of rural Guatemala. To reach these women and bring them online, USAID and the Microsoft Airband Initiative launched an innovative public-private collaboration designed to help close the rural broadband gap in communities like Nadia’s.