Empowering community and girl child with cyber awareness
In a bid to bring the girl child to par with male counterpart in the ICT space, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day party gave introductory training to the girls in Gamalete and the community as part of the activities leading up to the celebration day.
When Botswana first joined the rest of the world celebrating WTISD, the main focus of the day was just celebration and donation. Following the declaration of the Girls in ICT in 2012, the organizers have decided to impart some ICT knowledge to the girl-child and locals so they can effectively take advantage of the donations, according to Mpho Moletsane, Deputy Director, Corporate Communications for Botswana Communication Regulatory Authority(BOCRA). Moletsane heads the ICT Literacy Sub-Committee, which is part of the WTISD Preparatory Committee.
She said the plenary committee decided to celebrate and encourage the girl child who is left behind in the uptake of ICTs but included the community so that the donated technologies could be put to good use. “We are now seeing more girls coming into the ICT field and becoming engineers and we want to encourage more,” Moletsane stated.
Since May 12 gathering at Immanuel hall in Ramotswa the locals who included school children, pensioners, small businesses and farmers received basic ICT literacy training including cybersecurity awareness, privacy, digital embroidery as well as artificial intelligence awareness training. There was also a training of trainers workshop for all government offices, library, schools and the kgotla.
“This is meant to leave a mark by imparting knowledge that can’t be taken away. There are many dangers online such as cybercrime and we just had to ensure the locals are empowered to be mindful of such. We made sure they know how to protect themselves especially from privacy intrusion,” said Moletsane.
Mmegi spoke to some of the beneficiaries of the training who expressed gratitude. Tshepo Motlhabi who attended pensioners and farmers training said he learnt how to protect his information and not just give out his information. He also said he learnt the importance of creating a long password.
Alex Pogiso also attended the pensioners and farmers training and learnt how to be safe online. “The internet is good but can be very dangerous if misused. Criminals use the internet and target pensioners so you have to safeguard your privacy,” the pensioner stated.
Small stock farmer Bonolo Tabane once lost her animals and wishes she had known about animal tracking devices she learnt about during the workshop. She also learnt how to use an email and the risks of going online and shopping online.
Goabaone Monyazela was trained to be a trainer. He said he learnt digital literacy and cyber security and could not wait to go and teach his colleagues.
Mogobane Junior Secondary School student, Kennedy Moshaga said he learnt about the types of computers calculators and programmes as well as file managers, note pad. He was also advised to use the computer with a guardian. For information
International Day of the Girl Child is an international observance day declared by the United Nations; it is also called the Day of Girls and the International Day of the Girl. October 11, 2012, was the first Day of the Girl Child. The observation supports more opportunity for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based upon their gender. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, and protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage.[1] The celebration of the day also “reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research.”[2]