December 15, 2022 – This fall, WPDI was excited to launch its pilot IT Lab scheme at our Community Learning Center (CLC) at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda. With this hybrid learning scheme allowing WPDI to offer courses both in presence and online, we will be able to better respond to the increasing demand for training courses, as they have become more and more popular in the settlement over the years. The IT Lab is a flexible and reliable platform that allows a maximum number of individuals to be trained by WPDI, who can access online training courses in their own time and at their own pace, without the need for direct supervision in a classroom. For this purpose, an extension of our Community Learning Center in the Settlement was built and equipped with 25 new laptops last year.
WPDI worked with MIT ReACT (Refugee Action Hub) and the R2 digital agency to create an e-learning platform, the first of its kind at a WPDI CLC, funded by the Western Union Foundation. The platform is accessible at itlab-uganda.wpdi.org, where trainees can register for free and access a wide range of courses and resources in Conflict Resolution Education, Business & Entrepreneurship or Information & Communications Technology, all available at three levels: Basic, Intermediate or Advanced. Educational materials are provided in video and PDF format, and trainees are invited to partake in short quizzes to test their knowledge on each module, before undertaking a final test to obtain their certificate.
MIT also contributed by sharing their course content that can be accessed through the platform, such as advanced courses on Data Science and Entrepreneurship. Lana Cook, Assistant Director, Strategic Initiatives at MIT, said about the partnership: “We are proud to be part of this collaboration with WPDI and Western Union, as part of MIT ReACT’s mission is to open up education and employment pathways for refugee communities through digital learning. Co-designing with local educators was a valuable professional experience for our MIT ReACT interns who served as instructional designers on the project. Efforts like these are creating a next generation of digital learning designers and educators, who are leveraging the power of these technologies to open up flexible, high quality education opportunities for all.”
The IT Lab was officially launched in October. During her opening speech, WPDI Country Coordinator, Evelyn Laruni, elaborated on WPDI’s core thematic areas implemented at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement and within the host community which are in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals. Outlining that the IT Lab is a pilot project, Evelyn asserted that the project’s potential to reach thousands of beneficiaries is immense, and that it is a real opportunity to seize in order to change people’s lives for the better and give them tools to improve their career prospects and employability.
While demonstrating how the online program operates, Oryem Elias Ulego, WPDI IT Technician and sports tutor projected the learning approach to be employed while sustaining education continuity at the Community Learning Center. He encouraged local leaders to adopt this learning methodology as it is easily accessed from anywhere with access to the Internet.
The program is especially relevant in refugee settlements such as Kiryandongo where we identify and bring together people to cultivate ideas, solutions and best practices for underserved communities to access related learning resources and professional development opportunities, which turns them into agents of positive change in their communities, fostering lasting peace.
For many locals, being provided with access to such initiatives can be life changing for a local community blighted by instability and conflict. Margret Akello Okello, Vice Chairperson of the Local Council III/Secretary of Children’s affairs at Bweyale Town Council, said that she “would like to applaud WPDI for their tremendous work to mitigate conflict in our community! Everyone will agree with me that fighting among conflicting tribes was the order of the day in the past years and right now, we are enjoying a lasting peace as a result of the organization’s intervention. I will strongly mobilize women to participate in the online ICT training in order to be compliant to the world dynamics. Thank you WPDI for this initiative.”
Providing such infrastructure to youths and women, in particular, can be transformative for such communities, where gender equality and youth delinquency can be real drivers of conflict and insecurity. WPDI hopes to expand on this pilot project to provide pedagogical material to underprivileged communities around the world at the click of a button.
Visit the platform: https://itlab-uganda.wpdi.org/
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