I. YPDO- About Us
The Youth Press and Development Organization of the YPDO is a non-governmental organization, which was initially established in Chililabombwe, Zambia in the year of 2003.
YPDO together with it’s sister organisation Friends of YPDO Inc aims to empower its youth through education in information communication and also by encouraging them to inculcate good reading habits. The motivation behind this initiative was to provide the youth of Zambia, with a window of opportunity to familiarize and equip themselves with the ever-growing field of information technology.
The target audience for our program includes vulnerable youth who have dropped out of school as well as secondary school graduates who have not had the fortuity to work on a computer.
Through both our initiatives, we also aim to spread awareness about HIV AIDS amongst our young and impressionable youth.
II. History
A team of young individuals started the organization in the copper belt of Zambia and its founder, Mr. Kebby T. Shampongo in Chililabombwe, leads the team.
YPDO has been involved largely in two projects. They are as follows
i. The Library: This program involves the collection of old used books as well as new donated books for our established library. Books are donated and collected from around the world, through our dedicated volunteers. They are then shipped to Zambia to help support our cause. The group accessing these books includes both school going students as well as non-school attending youth. This initiative has attracted about fifty children to our library on a regular basis.
ii. The Access Technology Project: In 2006, YPDO was donated eight computers by a volunteer. This helped YPDO pioneer its project in information communication technology. Aiming to educate Zambia’s youth in the realm of information technology and to bring them up to date with the rest of the world, YPDO started offering the following training programs.
§ Information Technology – Hardware: Educates the students on basic computer hardware specifications. Provides the student with underlying knowledge on computer hardware such as the system unit, the monitor, the mouse, the keyboard etc.
§ Computer Software: Trains the youth on different computer software such as: ubuntu, Linux, fedora, windows- 98, 2000, XP and vista. The youth are coached on programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, database, open office and Microsoft office.
§ The Internet- a glimpse into the world of www: Basic knowledge regarding websites, email, online research etc is imparter. The youth is also made aware about the social innovations on the Internet such as social interactions and networking. The children are also taught Blog formation and website designing.
The internet line we use is pre paid. Though we use phones to communicate the connectivity is not strong to view or download images with higher resolutions.
This program has provided the students with a myriad of choices. To enhance their skills, they are opting to write examinations with either the University of Zambia (an extension program) or enrolling for online international driving certification program from the UK.
Since it’s inception, the program has helped train 200 students in the various courses outlined above.
III. The Children
i. A Background: Our program attracts students from three different backgrounds.
§ School Graduates or Dropouts: As the nomenclature suggests, this group comprises of students who have either graduated or dropped out of school. These children have never had the opportunity to use a computer system and in addition their background does not allow them to afford the costs of secondary or tertially education.
Classified as vulnerable but viable, these children are permitted free access to the computer lessons three times a week for a period of two hours each.
There are a total of thirty-two children in this group at present.
§ Working class students: The second group of students comprise of the working class youth. This group is provided with computer lessons totaling of five hours a week for a tuition fee of $8 a month.
This group is the income generating initiative of YPDO and helps sustain the running costs, such as rent, electricity, buying materials for mainstream students etc, of our program.
§ Children under the age of 14: Our group holds weekend classes for this group of young adults, so as to familiarize them with the world of information technology.
This group has trained a group of thirty students since the inception of the program.
ii. Contacting viable candidates for our programs
Possible candidates for our program are contacted through various social welfare departments, churches and community schools for orphans. Working in collaboration with these partners, students are carefully screened before they are recommended to us for training. Vulnerable yet viable, these children must demonstrate an eagerness to develop themselves for a better personal future. These children are divided into groups of eight and each group attends three sessions of 2 hours each per week.
IV. Language of Instruction
Tuitions are imparted to all in the English language.
V. Our Teachers
Our computer training teachers compromise of a team of three volunteers who posses a background in information technology. The team is as follows:
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VII. Conformity with the Requirements
Following is a summary of your requirements and our conformities with the same:
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VIII. ICT NEEDS AND LIBRARY
The town of Chililabombwe has over 100,000 residents of which 60% are young citizens. To be able to realize our dream of educating all the youth of Zambia, we require additional equipment in the form of computers, printers, scanners, digital cameras and books.
Type of equipment | Model | QTY | Operating system/Purpose | Others |
Desktop Computer | At Least PIII | 50 | 2000/XP, Vista, Fedora, Ubuntu (other open source). | CD/DVD/Internet ready |
Laptops | At least PIII | 10 | 2000/XP,Vista,Fedora,Ubuntu(other open source).Purpose-For mobile lessons in communities where we can establish mobile classes especially in per-urban areas | CD/DVD/Internet Ready |
Laser color Printer | any | 2 | For printing HIV/AIDS and other education materials | |
Black and white Printer | any | 2 | For printing HIV/AIDS and other education materials | |
Photo copier | any | 1 | Reproducing more materials | |
Video Camera | any | 4 | Capturing events, podcasting, social networking/inventions, income generating activity.. | |
Projector | Any | 1 | For presentations of projects in PowerPoint, lessons on ICTs | |
Scanner | any | 1 | Documenting activities that have already been published printed out. | |
Mobile Phones | Motorola, Nokia, LG, T-mobile…. | 20 | For mobile internet connectivity for our students. We intend to be plugging phones to the computers using prepaid lines with our local service providers Zain(celtel) and MTN. | The phones should be internet ready and able to be connected to the computers via USB cables,infra red and must have sim card compatibility |
Cyber café equipment | any | 1 | If available .Intend to connect the computers to high speed internet connectivity | |
Hub and network cables | any | 1 | For internet connectivity and online resource sharing | |
Board games | Assorted and any | 30 | For Children to have access to easier learning aids. The games could be sports…. | |
Radio | any | 10 | For radio educational broadcasting lessons for children. Mobile lessons especially in peri-urban areas | |
TV and Dish Kit with a decoder | any | 2 | For free educational programs for children | |
Others(webcams,Headphones,microphones | any | For effective communication |
We as an organization form a group of trained IT professionals who have extensive knowledge about computers and software. Having worked with different operating systems, including Linux, our trainers are comfortable applying as well as teaching the applications on these systems.
The computer systems donated to us will be a part of our mainstream program which aims educate the youth on the utilization of this ever-growing system of information, communication and work.
