The colours of Arua
Red soil, orange explosive sunrises, deep green vegetation and blue uniforms. That’s what I could see on my trip to Arua (West Nile) to train, with the Mondo team, the students of the Primary Teachers’ College on the Digital Competencies Training (DCT). Their commitment and excitement made me forget the 11 hours trip by bus on my return to Kampala.
Ndegeya Teachers’ College
On our way towards the equator (see an extremely Mzungu photo of myself below) I had the honor to interview some students who took part in the DCT at Ndegeya college.
Part of my tasks are to collect successful stories, and what is reported below is only an extract of the students’ testimony.
Barbra, 19, and Enock, 23, are about to graduate. Fascinated by my big camera, they were not shy in posing for some photos and told me their stories.
Proudly wearing his uniform, Enock ushers me towards a classroom to conduct the interview. He smiles whilst rigorously taking notes and introducing himself.
He was motivated to take the path of teaching by his family as “the people who surround me are teachers. My guardian, his wife, and most friends.”. But at the core of his choice there is a firm belief that teaching “is a natural calling, it’s in your blood, is to become an example to others, help them become what they are supposed to be”.
Thinking about the future, Enock feels that having gained IT skills, he will have more chances of getting good job opportunities and becoming financially stable.
“Teaching is to stand in front of a class, seeing the children’s own way to learn new concepts. You can’t teach without love.” describes Barbra. Her passion for teaching is “stemming out of love”, she says. After college, She would like to combine the two passions she has: study fashion and design of African kitenge clothes, whilst teaching in primary schools. “Gaining digital skills helped me,[...] I can now search on Google for different designs, latest fashions, product’s quality, advice on how to make them on my own.”
It’s inspirational to hear that digital skills can contribute to achieving someone’s dreams, and Barbra and Enock are committed to realising all of them.
Celebrations at UPA (Uganda Pioneers Association)
An exciting graduation day for the 9 attendees from UPA members who participated in the Train of Trainer course I delivered for them based on the Mondo DCT, where they mastered digital skills to spread the knowledge to other members in their communities. At the end of the training the participants not only received a hard and soft copy of the manual and slides to be able to train others, but also a shiny certificate… and a well deserved multi-layered super chocolate cake! They also managed to make my heart shrink to their words of appreciation and love towards the way I committed to their learning. I totally mirror these feelings and I feel most grateful, wishing them successful training ahead!
KDI - Kampala Disabled Initiative and Digital Competencies training meet
When two successful projects converge, you can only expect the best outcome. In this case, an explosion of kitenge fabrics, threads and needles, entrepreneurial skills, Insta stories and Canva posters.
Here, thanks to my friend and EUAV colleague Sophie and her willingness to coordinate a training session with me, the ladies from KDI enjoyed digital skills tailored on their needs, focusing on marketing, social media for business and smartphone photography to promote their products, improve graphic design skills and create a digital poster for their shop’s reopening event in August.
What it took was a smartphone donated by SUDHAV3 visibility budget, some internet data provided by microfinance and of course, an enduring source of passion and creativity.
I’m really looking forward to their event coming up soon!
Online we fly
Last but not least, the heartwarming and successful Digital skills training to the young refugees at Windle International, who will be soon resettled to Canada. Before catching that fly towards a new life and new opportunities, we manage to meet them and train them for the first time fully online. After a needs assessment we decided to focus on what the learners would have rather improved, such as financial literacy, CV writing and online job search, as well as graphic design and social media for marketing purposes and all the Google tools such as Maps, Docs, Sheets and Slides, to make their way in a highly digitalized part of the globe being equipped with full competences.
40 learners living in different Refugee Settlements across Uganda, joined our 2 weeks newly developed course using a mix of Zoom meeting, online resources based on the DCT material, and assignments on Google Classroom. Once again, the magic was made by a good amount of internet data provided by microfinance, but mostly their commitment despite the challenges of living in a refugee settlement with limited resources. It was truly uplifting to see their amazing work and hear their feedback - I wish them to achieve all of their dreams.
I will save you readers from my own story of travelling by bus from Uganda to Kenyan coast for my holiday with Felicia (EUAV)… but leaving you with a taste of it: the peace, the coconuts, the dolphins and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean was worth the 34 hours bus journey. Twice.
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