Girls' Computer Literacy & Leadership Program

Activities at the Multimedia Center continue with regular training sessions for young women from neighboring villages.

Our coordinator writes (translated from French):

The multimedia center of Houndé completed its training of a second group of young women from Karaba in computer tools. It was June 26 at the Houndé Multimedia Center. They were 10 young women to participate with assiduity in this training which lasted 8 days. It was also an opportunity for them to learn how to write children's books. It is with great joy that they receive their training certificates at the Karaba community library. According to the young women they plan to continue working on the book texts they have been developing so that FAVL might eventually print and distribute them to village libraries.

Activities at the Multimedia Center continue with regular training sessions for young women from neighbouring villages.

Our coordinator writes (translated from French):

Ten secondary school girls from the village of Karaba; benefited from eight basic computer training sessions during the period from February to March 2021 at the Houndé multimedia center. They learned a lot about Word software. They will soon receive their certificates of recognition and completion of training from the coach. He is very happy with the performances achieved by the participants. He wishes them good luck for the rest of their careers.

As Burkina Faso re-opens, the FAVL media center in Houndé has resumed training sessions for young women in using computers. The sessions are held on Saturday afternoons, and involve a variety of basic computer functions. The goal is to demystify computers, by enabling young women from villages without electricity or computer access to learn how to turn computers on, open word processing software, type documents, save, print, etc. All the basics, and the idea is that exposure gives some more confidence to these young women who have limited opportunities in their villages. Participants receive a small stipend. The trainers also encourage reading during and after the sessions. The longer-term goal is that perhaps some of the young women might try their hand at writing a small story that can then be illustrated and published in the media center.

In the past year 2020, FAVL received just over $1,750 in donations for this project. We thank the many donors!

We are planning then to use these funds to hold monthly training sessions of about 3 hours each for about 5-10 young women from enighbouring villages. We shall do 12 of these sessions, with budget of about $150 for each session. On another day of the week the trainer will open the CMH for access to any young women who want to use the computers and improve their skills.

Expenses will be the following:

• A small stipend of $4 per young women per session (so assuming 7 women attend each session, this will be $28 per session).
• Refreshments will be purchased (bottled water, peanuts, and coffee) costing about $10 per session.
• The trainer will be paid a stipend of $30 per session and "open use" day.
• The trainer will produce and print a small booklet of instructions for computer use, covering essentials of various software programs, and will be paid a stipend of $20 per session for producing the booklet in advance.
• Printing the booklets will be approximately $15 per session.
• Each participant will receive a small flash drive, costing $2, to store their documents and work.
• Miscellaneous expenses will include virus protection, paper, printer ink, and assuring computer functioning for each session.

We shall begin the session in mid-January and report regularly on them on the FAVL blog. At the end of the sessions, each participant who can demonstrate proficiency in basic computer tasks will receive a certificate of completion and be encouraged to come and use the computers.

On regular library activities, the FAVL blog has been filled in recent months with news of activities from various libraries and programs since October when activities resumed after the end of the Covid19 lockdowns and restrictions. The mobile library in Houndé has been active, delivering reading materials to kids in schools. Librarians in the Tuy region have resumed monthly gatherings. The FAVL representative in Burkina Faso, Sanou Dounko, regularly visits libraries. In October, he held a meeting with several mayors to coordinate efforts to ensure that librarians are hired as “municipal” employees. He met with librarians in three regional meetings in early December. Over in Ghana, CESRUD library coordinator Paul Ayutoliya has overseen the re-roofing and refurbishment of Gowrie-Kunkua library, as the roof blew off in a violent rainstorm in May. The Sumbrungu and Sherigu libraries have been very busy since they reopened. FAVL has also been committing funding to modest renewal of book collections, and locally in Burkina Faso the Ministry of Culture as well as the U.S. Embassy have been supporting the libraries. More news is available on the blog.

The Houndé multimedia center is the location where FAVL conducts two activities: first, encouraging, enabling, and editing local creation of illustrated books for young readers, written by local authors; second, holding occasional computer training sessions for young women in the area. The training sessions usually take place over two days, and the travel, lodging and food costs are provided by FAVL. Typically, about eight young women participate at a time. They learn how to use computers to type, edit, and save documents, store on flash drives, and other basic computer activities. We are hoping the next training session will take place in October 2020. The center did host a short training for the driver/animator of the mobile library, so he could type his reports.