DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The tiny village of El Limón, high in the arid mountains of the Ocoa region of this Caribbean nation, picked itself up by its bootstraps when its 350 citizens built their own hydroelectric system.

Using a series of plastic pipes from an existing irrigation system, the people of El Limón figured they could generate enough electricity to power a light bulb in each of the village's 50 or so houses -- and have enough left over to power their cinder block schoolhouse.

With the help of a volunteer from the United States, they developed the system and labored hard to put it in place. They mixed cement by hand and poured it into wooden molds to craft 500-pound utility poles. Then they carried the poles up the mountain, dug the holes and installed the wiring system.

Once they had electricity, the villagers hooked up a donated computer to the Internet using a digital radio and an antenna relay system that connects to the nearest phone line, ten miles away. Now their school, which has no library -- in a village with neither telephones nor indoor plumbing -- has a connection to the World Wide Web.

The students in El Limón are learning digital video editing on a computer and are making their own documentary about the hydroelectric project. They plan to show the video to other communities in the area -- in the hope of repeating El Limón's success story.

		Jon Katz and CNN's Jonathan Mann explain how the community of El Limon decided to bring electricity to their remote mountain village. Quicktime
		How El Limon's school connected a digital radio to a phone line 10 miles away so its students could have Internet access. Quicktime
		Not only has the Internet exposed El Limon to the world, but also it has made several of the village's older students fluent in computer sciences. Quicktime

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