Community leadership for computer skills training
Posted by: Claire Bristow and Sarah Whitney, Global Development Fellows
We hope you have had a chance to check out the pictures of the progress on the community hall. Things are going well and we will post more soon. In a few weeks, members of the community will begin to assemble a fence along the property lines of the hall, in order to ensure safety and security. The Project Steering Committee is working hard on programming concepts for the hall and will begin planning meetings for creating new and expanding existing community groups in March.
One such programming aspect revolves around using computers as a resource for education and business development. Ethel Mhlongo is the Project Steering Committee member heading this initiative and her ideas and dedication are strong. Ethel is nineteen and was one of the few in her class to pass her matriculation exams at Manyangana High School in Uta in 2007. In 2008, she went bacj to school in order to try for higher grades on her exams, and she achieved them, better preparing herself for her future. Since finishing high school, Ethel has completed a number of computer training and certification courses, and plans to go to university in Johannesburg to further her studies. Ethel also has a wonderful three-year-old son to whom she is completed dedicated in addition to her future dreams. She has served as the deputy secretary for the Project Steering Committee and is on the way to creating great programming in computer education at the community hall.
Ethel sees a computer centre in the community hall as a place for members of the community of all ages to learn computer skills for the first time. She plans on finding a way for the computer centre to issue diplomas and certificates to community members to accredidate the training they receive. Computers can also be used, she believes, as tools for CV writing and job searches, increasing prospects of employment for community members. Ethel recently gathered her ideas for computer education with other community members, and has shared with the Project Steering Committee the next steps that she will take and the other women who will be involved in he programming. We look forward to their success.
Shangaan word of the day – computer – khomphyuta
