Dem. Republic Congo

Mbobero To extend the Digital Unify program to countries where STMicroelectronics is not present, the Foundation has chosen to collaborate with experienced NGOs active in the field of ICT4D, giving priority to the region of sub-Saharan Africa.

For the launch of the Digital Unify in Democratic Republic Congo, we have decided to side with METID (Metodologie E Tecnologie Innovative per la Didattica), the e-learning center of Polytechnic of Milan, and with MLFM (Movimento per la Lotta contro la Fame nel Mondo), an NGO belonging to FOCSIV association.

The aim has been to create a Computer Learning Center that is freely accessible to teachers, students and the local community, and where they can attend free computer literacy courses as per the Foundation’s Digital Unify curriculum as wells as take advantage of other ICT activities provided by METID.

The site chosen is the Saint Paul Lyceum, a secondary school lead by Barnabite priests, located in Mbobero, a village near Bukavu in the South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Computer Learning Center has been set up at the Saint Paul Lyceum in August 2005 and consists of a network of 11 computers connected to Internet through a satellite connection.

Mboero

The network has been expanded with access points in order to allow network and Internet access to other parts of the Lyceum such as the Secretariat, the Principal’s Office and Barnabite House.

Two ICT local experts have been trained through the Foundation’s “Train the trainer” program in order to deliver computer literacy training courses throughout the year to students and teachers of the school and of neighboring schools and to the local community.

During the whole duration of the project, thanks to the Internet link created through the satellite technologies, the project management team will be provided with the capabilities of monitoring the project activities and of providing distance learning contents to the local experts/community.

Birava The launch of the Digital Unify in Democratic Republic Congo achieved another important result at the beginning of 2006: the creation of a new Computer Learning Center freely accessible to teachers, students and local community in the village of Birava situated 25 kilometers from Bukavu.

The Foundation, for the implementation of its program, has chosen to continue the positive collaboration with METID (Metodologie e Tecniche Innovative per la Didattica) and with MLFM (Movimento per la Lotta Contro la Fame nel Mondo).

Birava

The site chosen is the Nyamucola High School which is managed by the religious catholic order of the Barnabite priests.

The number of students attending the school is 650. The lab will allow the delivery of ICB classes to school staff, students and the local community.

The computer learning center, consisting of a network of 11 computers connected to internet through a satellite connection became fully operational on the 18th of January.

During the first period of the start up an intern, expert in informatics will train local staff on the running of the Learning Center.

During the same period an ICT local expert will be trained in order to deliver computer literacy training courses throughout the year.

The lab will provide computer literacy and training to school staff and students during school hours and to the local community in the afternoon and evenings.

In the week-end the lab will serve as open local kiosk. About 1000 trainees will be trained per year for at least 3 years.