Soft Power Education

The Problem

The ability to access information is crucial in enabling people to fight the causes of poverty; the rural poor in Uganda suffer directly from being disempowered through a lack of access to information leading to a lack of control over their own lives. The ability to access information is also crucial in enabling people to ultimately escape poverty - the rural poor in Uganda also suffer directly from being disempowered through a lack of access to educational information. The remote locations of target rural communities lead to isolation and exclusion from decision making processes and development initiatives. Isolation and a lack of access to information cause further feelings of disempowerment within communities. Despite the emergence of ICT facilities, access to basic ICT skills courses remains prohibitively expensive for people in rural communities. Together with this, our research has shown that ICT is seen by people in rural communities as a specialist endeavour, which can only be understood and accessed by educated people from urban areas

The Solution

Uganda is experiencing a steady growth in ICT facilities across the country. The Global Knowledge Partnership has shown through research that if rural communities in developing countries are empowered by and engaged in technology they will be able to utilise it to shape their own future and to step out of poverty.

The Project

We are currently reviewing this project and more information will be available soon. In the meantime please feel free to read through the information below which gives details of the ICT project running up until the end of 2008.

Check back soon!

Aims

• To increase community knowledge and skills relating to ICT
• To build the community capacity to access and utilise ICT facilities
• To develop employment based skills

This project aims to build the capacity of local people to access and utilise ICT facilities through providing basic ICT courses at an extremely low cost to those with no current access to ICT education. The objective is not to teach stand-alone technology, but to enable people to utilise technology to access information that is pertinent to their lives. The ICT department will provide two courses to people from rural communities - the first being a 'Basic ICT Skills' course and the second being an 'Internet Literacy' course. Courses will be taught in the local language by Departmental Staff and Ugandan volunteers within the ICT department at the AEC. The focus of the Internet Literacy course will be on learning how to access pertinent information through relevant websites (such as health, agriculture, pest control etc). Internet communication skills will also be a priority together with an understanding of how computers impact on the lives of people across the world

Actions

• The pilot project for the ICT course was trialled in December 2007
• For the first year basic computer skills will be taught to the Kyabirwa community
• The ICT Department will head education sessions of 15 community members per community period
• 3 courses will run per day for 3 weeks, 5 days a week and 1.5 hours each per day
• Upon completion of the basic ICT course, community members have access to the ICT room on Saturdays

Anticipated Outcomes

The pilot for this project was run in December 2007 and was a huge success. For the remaining community times in 2008 members of the Kyabirwa community (closest to the AEC) will have access to the courses. By the end of 2008, 60 community members will be empowered through being able to access the growing amount of ICT centres in the area. They will be able to access information on the internet which they could use to inform their daily lives. They will also be able to access further education and, potentially, employment opportunities. The confidence of those completing the course will show to others in the communities that ICT skills are not for an elite class and other people will be encouraged to gain similar skills. This is a pioneering project as studies into ICT use in rural Africa are still scarce. Monitoring of how people use their skills and how the new skills affect their lives will inform the development of this project and the future of ICT development in Africa. We keep attendance registers to allow easy follow up one year after the course. Upon completion of the course, community members will also have access to the computers on Saturdays.

Evaluation

• Courses have successfully run during all community periods
• 60 community members will have been taught basic computer skills in 2008
• Test retention and knowledge learned after each course
• Registers for attendance leading to follow up monitoring and reporting on those who attended the course after one year.

The Budget

Budget includes costs for printing learning materials and monitoring the impact of the project.

Volunteering Opportunities

If you have experience in teaching ICT to beginners or you are proficient in ICT and have an interest in this project please contact volunteering@softpowereducation.com for details on how to volunteer.