From Guns to Computers

As the first African led organization on ICTs in African education, SchoolNet Africa believes that ICTs are tools to catalyse educational opportunities for African youth and holds immense potential in meeting Education for All objectives.

This document outlines a pilot initiative to introduce an ICT-enabled education program for child ex-combatants in three African countries: Angola, Liberia and Rwanda.

The project seeks to establish an ICT multimedia and skill training centre for child ex-combatants in three African cities in Angola, Liberia and Rwanda.

Project Objectives

1. Deploy multimedia computer access to child ex-combatants in three cities in Angola, Liberia and Rwanda
2. Provide computer skills to 100 child ex-combatants in each of the three countries by the end of 2004
3. Provide psychological counselling programmes for the trained child ex-combatants
4. Assist in the rehabilitation of child ex-combatants into main stream society of family, education and job opportunities
5. Highlight implications for a national program on a larger scale

Project Outputs and Outcomes

At the end of the one year period of the project

1. Three cities of Angola, Liberia and Rwanda would have been equipped with 40 multimedia computer systems;
2. Over a hundred ex-child combatants would have been trained in generic and technical computer skills;
3. 300 child ex-combatants in each of the countries would have been trained and rehabilitated into main stream society
4. A structure, network and equipment would have been available to the three countries to train, counsel and rehabilitate other child ex-combatants
5. An evaluation report and mechanism would be available to replicate the project in other countries.

Conclusion

As the issue of ex-child combatants continue to limit education for all goals in Africa SchoolNet Africa calls on all stakeholders in education in Angola, Liberia and Rwanda, non government organisations (NGOs) and the international donor community to support this project.

It is hoped that the success of this pilot project would lead to an extension of education opportunities through ICTs for child ex-combatants in other war-torn countries such as Sierra Leone, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Education for Peace in Africa
The mission of the University for Peace is to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings a spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples, and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations. [1114]
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