Three Ghanaians launch project to bridge the ICT gap for rural children

General News of Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-03-20

Three young Ghanaians, all students from Arizona State University in the United States, have launched a project to bridge the ICT gap between urban and rural children in Ghana.

The three, Golda Afoakwa, Richard Sewor and Douglas Amoo-Sargon, founders of Sua IT, a company aimed at improving the computer literacy of Ghana's rural youth.

The founders hope that this initiative will help children in rural Ghana catch up with children in urban communities across the country.

Young students aim to travel long distances from Accra with laptops, textbooks, a projector, a generator and other gadgets in rural areas to help the less fortunate to acquire ICT skills .

Sua IT won the Resolution Social Venture Challenge in 2018, a competition for compelling leadership and promising social projects led by young people.

These young leaders were awarded a scholarship including start-up funding, mentorship and access to a network of young global change actors to carry out projects that impact their communities.

The MasterCard Foundation and The Resolution Project have collaborated to enable the Resolution Social Venture Challenge to provide support to socially responsible young leaders who want to create change that matters in their communities.

Sua IT should promote ICT education in rural communities, which will benefit 1,000 to 1,500 children each year and target a maximum of four schools in one year.

The team is also looking for partners to acquire enough computers for each student during the training.

Equipped with essential IT skills, the team hopes to create a community of thinkers who can harness the power of technology to become agents of change in society.

How it works

With the help of teachers and volunteers, the installation is done in one of the halls of the school, where a projector powered by a generator is connected to a computer and the images appear on the wall.

After the introductory lessons, students form groups and each group is badigned a laptop with one or two volunteers to take them through the practical session.

Once done, they come back to the workshop to be badessed and are invited to ask questions.

At the end of the training, a group of teachers and students with good computer skills are elected to help the rest of the students continue to learn computer skills while waiting for the next training workshop.

"Most children in Ghana's rural communities do not have practical ICT skills. The urgency for these children to acquire such knowledge has been clearly articulated in the government's ICT agenda as an important and fundamental tool that all children in Ghana need. However, we find that most children do not have this privilege, "said Golda.

She added, "We want every Ghanaian kid living in a rural environment to comfortably use technology products. We also want them to take advantage of the Internet by exposing these students to global and social issues, as well as encouraging them to develop solutions to the problems they have seen in their communities. "

"Thanks to this scholarship, I am now finishing my master's degree and enjoying the experience of different cultures, an exhibition, in-depth knowledge and practical training. Being a scholar and a winner of the Social Venture Challenge have been great achievements in my life, "said Golda.

According to the three Ghanaians, they feel fortunate to be among the scholars whose education is supported by the MasterCard Foundation Fellowship Program, which awards scholarships based on their academic talents, their social conscience and their leadership qualities.

This is through the Scholars program networks that they were exposed for the first time to the Social Resolution Challenge Venture.

The phrase "The MasterCard Foundation has allowed me to meet my wonderful fellowship team and to found Sua IT for the social good of our community. This social enterprise is a chance for us to give back to our communities. I am proud of these achievements. Thanks to Sua IT, I believe we are giving young children in rural communities an equal opportunity to prosper and become agents of change in their own right, "said Douglas.

"ICT is a course that requires hands-on experience to help students gain a deeper understanding, but this is not the case for most rural schools," said Richard.

Richard also revealed that "Maxwell Peprah's research on ICT education in the Ashanti region of Ghana in 2016 showed that 96.1% of students did not have laboratory for practical ICT training. Most students did not have enough books, computers and the Internet. Lack of access to the Internet and electricity is one of the main causes of ICT extension in rural communities. Sixty-five percent of the students had trouble understanding the course because they did not have the practical knowledge of the technology. "

"We are going to focus on students in levels 1 to 3 of lower secondary grades. We currently have about six principals who want their schools to benefit from this project, "concluded Richard.

Douglas also said, "Knowledge of how to use information to create solutions is essential to our country's development. Through ICT training, we can enable young Ghanaians to grow and learn. We see our project as an opportunity that other young people in Africa can seize to improve digital literacy and ICT education. "