2nd SMART Sistas ICT Camp for Girls closes

May 29, 2017 | Initiatives and Projects | 0

A week-long Sisters Mastering Advanced Real Technology, SMART Sistas 2017 ICT Camp for Girls closed last Friday evening at the Convention Center in Port Vila with the presentation of certificates to the ten girls who participated. The girls attending with their guardians also went home with a laptop computer each.

This was the second Information Communication Technology (ICT) Camp for Girls to be held after the first one last year also attended by ten participants accompanied by their guardians.

“ICT can make you powerful. It can empower you to be useful members of your society,” Chief Government Information Officer, Gerard Metsan, told the girls in his speech at the closing ceremony.

“ICT is a good tool, but when you don’t use it in a good way, it can cause a communication breakdown or your relationship within your family to break down,” he cautioned, adding “You must be careful that you listen to your parents always and you must always respect ICT as a tool for helping you.”

Metsan urged the guardians to ensure they help the girls maintain their interest in the subject because he said: “it is important for the sustainability of the program as the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) will be support next year’s camp,” he assured everyone including the organizers of the camp.

The Regulator of Telecommunication and Radiocommunication Regulator (TRR) who are also sponsors, Dalcy Baniala said bringing up girls in ICT was her passion to see girls become skilled in the use of ICT. She challenged the girls to learn to master ICT as a tool so they can become innovators.

“Today, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Americans and other nationalities produce technologies and we get to use them. Why not we build ICT tools that they in turn can use?” READ MORE

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Mother shares premature birth experience during COVID-19 November 20, 2023
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Ni-Vanuatu Women’s voices echo far at 3rd regional Community-Based Fisheries Dialogue November 16, 2023
Mrs. Rose Jimmy (left) and Mrs. Leisavi Joel during their Talanoa session yesterday. Photo: VFD Representatives from community groups and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from across the region, gathered in Nouméa to take part in the 3rd regional Community-Based Fisheries Dialogue on November 14-15, 2023. This occurred as part the 6th Regional Technical Meeting on Coastal Fisheries and Aquaculture (RTMCFA), hosted by the Pacific Community (SPC). The dialogue provides a space for communities from across the region to share their views on issues relating to their coastal fisheries. During the second day of this meeting, Mrs. Leisavi Joel and Mrs. Rose Jimmy from the Havana Tasivanua Environment and Climate Action Network held a ‘Talanoa’ (shared their experience) session in front of an audience of over 100 participants from the Pacific. Mrs. Joel and Mrs. Jimmy were part of a special session organised by SPC and the University of Wollongong that discussed the importance of including voices from women alongside men in Community-Based Fisheries Management (CBFM). The growing collaboration between the Vanuatu Fisheries Department (VFD) and Vanua-Tai Resource Monitors Network was critical to making their participation possible. Following a panel of four speakers from Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, Mrs. Joel shared, with passion and emotion, her personal experience and journey as a woman representative from her community working on sustainable fisheries management. “It is hard work for a woman to be actively involved in a male dominated area in the community, when it comes down to decision-making in our community, at the end of the day we have to look at the chief for his support,” she said. In regard to getting recognition from the community leaders, she added, “Sometimes the chief just sees us as a sister, aunty, mother or grandmother and nothing more, even though I am involved actively with our coastal and environmental activities inside the community.” Mrs. Joel and Mrs. Jimmy are the first women to hold a ‘Talanoa’ session during such a regional meeting and were widely appreciated. The session has demonstrated its value as a way to bring community voices to the regional leaders in coastal fisheries. The duo continued to actively participate during the 2-day discussion and want their experiences to set an example for other women in Vanuatu to become active members of CBFM committees in their community, with the support of men leaders. ________________________________________________________ SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST

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Civil Society organises protest against political instability November 14, 2023
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174 seasonal workers blacklisted November 6, 2023
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