Access to computer skills and competences for children and young people in Koumra

The city of Koumra is inhabited by more than 10,500 families, 8,400 of which live below the poverty line, on less than a dollar a day. In terms of education, the school completion rate remains below 20%. This poverty situation has had an impact on the behaviour of young people in recent years. More than 1,000 girls and boys leave the province in search of their fortune in the capital, and often find employment in gold mining sites with inhuman treatment and, frequently, accidents. On site, young people develop violent, extremist and delinquent behaviour. Only 2% of young people in and around Koumra have computer literacy. The main causes are economic poverty and the lack of adequate computer training centres. The lack of specific and professional skills is a disadvantage for the entrepreneurship of young people and exposes them to unhealthy habits such as alcohol addiction and idleness. In a context such as the one just described, the need arose – through this project proposal – to develop technical and professional IT skills for young people at risk of vulnerability, in order to offer them opportunities for professional integration. IT tools are indispensable in any business sector and it is therefore essential that young people master them correctly and fully. The beneficiaries of the project are people who wish to acquire IT skills. Access to knowledge, training and work is a human right.

AIM OF THE PROJECT:

Project’s objective is to guarantee computer training for young people in the Koumra area in order to improve their chances of future employment. Thanks to the improvement of the computer room at the Champagnat Centre, it will be possible to guarantee higher quality training for young people, especially those in economically and socially vulnerable situations, in order to develop their professional and computer skills. The classroom currently has computers but they are dilapidated and malfunctioning and therefore need to be replaced. The aim of the project is to help young people at risk of vulnerability or exposed to behaviour such as extremism and any other social drift, through their economic and social integration, which will be made possible through the improvement of their existing skills and the acquisition of new ones. The city of Koumra has eight computer service centres, but only one of them has started a basic computer training course, which is, however, attended by less than three students per semester due to the lack of a facility where courses can be started. The other seven only deal with photocopying, binding and laminating documents. As for the Internet connection, none of the above-mentioned eight centres has made it available so far.