Digital skills opportunity for Matabeleland rural girls
Mabel Khumalo
GWANDA – The Youth for Innovation Trust has set up an educative digital skills initiative dubbed ‘2021-2 Digital Skills for Rural Girls Program’ to teach new technology to young rural girls under the auspices of a project targeting young women under the age of 24 who hail from Matebeland.
According to the organization, the goal of the initiative is to enhance the online presence of rural girls and teach them to use technology to change their communities and lives.
Lupane in Matabeleland North and Gwanda in Matabeleland South week will jointly host the week-long boot camp. The venue choices were carefully chosen in order to accommodate participants from all corners of Matabeleland.
During the boot camp, the women will be given an opportunity to gain skills in digital productivity, online basics, digital security and coding.
Managing Director for YIT, Thando Gwinji said the boot camp will help reduce the gender divide in Information and Communications Technology.
” A lot of women are not well versed in new technology due to lack of resources and this has been worsened by the COVID19 pandemic as it has derailed the academic progression of most rural girls and forced them into early marriages and involuntary sex work,” he said.Gwinji added that the project will give t participants a starting point in life as they will gain digital skills that are essential in the contemporary job market.
The Creative Media Officer for YIT Senelani Ndlovu highlighted that the knowledge that will be imparted to the participants during the boot camp, will not only develop them as individuals but will also develop their communities as a whole.
” I am positive that this project will create active alumni who are innovative thinkers, who will come up with innovative solutions to the problems faced by youths and their communities at large,” she said.
