e-Inclusion
a Non-governmental organisation in partnership with Vodafone Ghana Foundation, is organizing a 3
Month ICT Project dubbed TechConnect.
Project
TechConnect will be launched in January 2016 at Aflao.
Aflao is a town in Ketu South District in the Volta Region on Ghana's Togolese (eastern) border. Aflao is the twenty-eighth most populous settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a population of 66,546 people. Interestingly, in the 18th century, Aflao served as one of the major markets for the slave trade.
However irrespective of
the economic activities in the border town, there is still a high level of
deprivation and lack of educational facilitates to aid students in their studies.
As part of Project
TechConnect selection criteria, 4 Junior High Schools with a total student population
of about 4000 with no access to ICT labs and facilities were nominated to
participate
In view of this, Project TechConnect will be training on ICT with focus on relevance to education
and overview of ICT syllabus for Junior High School pupils.
What Motivated this Project?
The role of Information Communication Technology
(ICT) as a tool for development in this dynamic world cannot be overemphasized.
This requires prioritization of ICT in every country. Ghana as a developing
country needs to consistently upgrade its ICT to capitalize on opportunities
and gain competitive advantage over others globally.
In view of such merits, successive governments and
other non-governmental organisations have taken initiatives such as “ the
national ICT for socio-economic development (ICTAD) policy in 2003”, “the ICT
development policy in 2004” and the “one laptop per child project” to ensure
ICT development amongst the youth. This has resulted in significant
transformation.
Despite these merits there have been reported cases
on gender inequality in ICT. United Nations (2000) reported that, there is a
gender divide with women and girls enjoying less access to ICT than men and
boys. They further stressed the prevalence of such instances in developing
countries even though female constitute a higher population. For instance, the
2010 census conducted in Ghana revealed that women population form 51.2% and
hence the need for women empowerment.
The Project Objectives
This project therefore seeks to address gender inequality
and empowerment of females especially girls through ICT by working with NGOs
& CBOs (Community Based Organizations) to support pupils in “deprived”
communities.
In our communities, access to ICT materials/tools remains a
challenge due to cost and lack of facilities. As part of the project objective,
e-Inclusion will be organising ICT clinics, using ICT tools for a cluster of
four (4) community based Junior High School pupils. The pupils will be
introduced to basic ICT tools, how to use them, as well as their impact on education.
We expect that a total of 120 pupils will benefit from the ICT clinic.
With our focus on resolving the gender inequality in
the ICT industry, the project is aimed at Promoting and encouraging the use of
ICT by girls at all levels of education. As part of the clinic, a special
competition shall be organised amongst the girls from the CBS (Community Based
Schools) as a way of motivating them into this field.
One Key target is the establishment of e-Inclusion’s
Tech Clubs in participating schools to encourage girls to consider careers in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
For sustainability of the project, e-Inclusion will
be donating ICT Tools/library to the CBS. The library is to serve as a
reference material for both teachers and pupils
The e-Inclusion TechHub
e-Inclusion as part of this project is establishing
a fully furnished ICT hub for these cluster of schools (using existing
infrastructure) to be managed jointly with e-Inclusion. Vodafone Foundation is
also donating 10 laptops in support of this ICT hub.
In view of this, ICT instructors will be trained on
e- Library Management Tool. This is a soft tool which can help in easy
management of the Library
In addition to this facility a High Speed
Internet will also be made available at
the Hub to aid both students and Teachers in their research work.
Expected Impact of the Project
We expect that a total of 120 pupils will fully
benefit from the exciting but educative programme outline. This covers, Personal Hygiene, Career Guidance
and Counselling, Career Opportunities for e-Girls, among other engaging
activities.
Also, other Community Schools within the enclave
will benefit immensely from the e-Inclusion TechHub
It is also expected that better grades in ICT will
be recorded in subsequent BECE results with continuous monitoring and
evaluation programme which will be instituted by e-Inclusion.
Want
to donate or volunteer to be part of this impactful project?
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Mobile: 0503160358/ 0554208999
Empower a Girl with Technology, Empower a multitude of Innovators -
Veronica Da-Silva, Founder/e-Inclusion
