The village of Dikhatole began as a settlement for Black workers under the apartheid regime. The village has water and electricity, but lacks paved roads, and most of the homes are rudimentary huts that do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
The 10,000 families living there have suffered from South Africa’s worst problems: AIDS, unemployment, violence, crime, and inadequate schools.
What the project is about
This project will open up new opportunities for people in the community, with the goal of providing computer training to 1,100 unemployed young people so they can acquire skills in computing, the internet, and business.
In addition, opportunities to find employment or start small businesses will be improved, helping people break free from the cycle of poverty.
The first six-week course began on May 20.
The program also aims to teach local government officials how to use computers as a work tool and to train 70 school teachers who will teach the basics of computing to more than 2,400 children.
For the project, Hewlett-Packard donated the computers, their accessories, and the hardware needed to integrate them into a network and connect them to the internet, while ORT is responsible for the implementation and development of the initiative, which will receive its support for a period of three years and then become self-sustaining.
To ensure that this is successful, the project’s leaders are working closely with government officials, private-sector representatives, and prominent community members.