Kamuli rural youth engage with ICT at first workshop

UDS is moving swiftly forward with its programme to encourage the rural youth around Kamuli to engage with ICT training.

After meeting local youth leaders back in September (see earlier blog), our Kamuli office decided to set up a one-day workshop to present both ICT theory and practice, in order to show rural youth how useful computer skills would be in advancing their lives.

So one Thursday in late November 36 young people – some of them deaf – from around Kamuli district gathered at UDS for a day of discussion and demonstration.

One of the main points our instructors put across is the benefits ICT can bring in accessing information – whether educational or general information.  The workshop showed the young people attending how access to the internet can help them network and interact with each other and the wider world.

Of course very few of these young people have a computer – to use one they have to visit our cyber cafe. But it was agreed that mobile phones are very useful for accessing the internet, even though the signal around Kamuli is intermittent.  

The day engendered a lot of enthusiasm, and at the end of the session our participants came up with a number of recommendations to advance the use of ICT among rural youth, including: better promotion of ICT in agriculture, improving opportunities for youth in rural areas using ICT, providing funding and policies that support young businesses and young companies engaged in the development of ICT solutions, develop online and traditional mentorship schemes for young people, and competitions and online scholarships.

A second session was organized the following week, when the participants were due to return to be set up with email and Facebook accounts.