The South Ruimveldt Women’s Empowerment group, with the help of the National Data Management Authority (eGovernment) on Tuesday officially launched an ICT Hub. The centre is a community project that aims to empower young people.
The centre offers fifth and fourth form students free research space; it also caters to other exam students.
The centre, which is located in a section of the Shopping Plaza in South Ruimveldt, received eight laptop computers from the eGovernment Unit.
Constituency 14 (South Ruimvedlt) representative Brenda Williams said the centre also caters for the less fortunate whose parents cannot afford extra lessons. It will facilitate free remedial classes for children between 7 and 14 years old.
Miss Williams told News Room how the project came about.
“We started to do a survey in an effort to inform us what is happening. We know that they are a lot of young boys not doing anything and not going to school, and also a number of young girls who are not doing anything. We saw conditions on which they lived and what they were doing and this informed us that we have to start doing something.”
Even though the centre facilitates Information and Communications Technology, it also focuses on other areas. Salon owners, teachers and florists are some of the volunteers who put in their time to teach in the afternoons.
“We do traditional things like knitting…floral… cosmetology; we do reading lessons for younger children,” Williams said.
The project to empower young people started in June 2018.
Denroy Tudor, one of the board members for the centre, said only last month free Wi-Fi services were installed. The centre was repainted and refurbished with donations from Food for the Poor.
“We are going to be having young people that are going to be empowered through technology here.
“This is certainly not just for the residents of South Ruimveldt, but we know that certainly persons from Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Rasville even down closer to container city will benefit,” Mr Tudor, who is also the elected Councillor for the area, said.
The people friendly centre has about 30 volunteers working on a rotating basis.