Starting a network of IT peer tutors in Ghana

I believe it was meant to be. Us, Success4All, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the North of England, getting to know I Care College, based in Juapong, in the south of Ghana.  It happened through a member of our church here, Francis Dzre, who is also a director of I Care College. Occasionally, he had spoken to me about what I Care College was trying to do in remote areas of Juapong. 

During lockdown, like so many other people, we had to learn to live, study and work online, becoming part of the virtual world. We were struggling at first, and so were the parents & carers of the children and young people we supported. We were fortunate to train one of our staff, Stella, to become a certified Google expert. We were then able to train 45 parents & carers in basic IT-skills and to become familiar with Google applications.  Stella developed a lovely interactive set of video tutorials for them, which we were able to accredit with an AQA Skills Award in ICT Employability.

So, when Francis spoke to me again about how I Care College was struggling too with online learning, especially with lack of IT-skills, we decided to use the training we had developed to support them.   Soon, Bro Dela, the director of the college, came back and said that there were over 2000 students waiting to be trained! I laughed and had to tell him that we were a small charity and that we couldn't possibly train them all! 

At Success4All, our motto is 'Young People Learning From Each Other'. We have been training young people to become peer tutors and mentors for the past 15 years to support their young peers with their studies and with study skills. And so, we suggested that we could train 15 of their gifted & talented young people to become IT-peer tutors. We started over the summer and have almost completed the course.  We are hoping for the first 15 college students to submit their remaining work and receive the certificate before end of March 2022. 

Yes, there are problems. The IT-devices the college has are outdated and slow, and few have cameras, microphones and headphones. The connectivity is problematic and data is costly. Together with I Care College, we have researched how to improve this and how much it will all cost.  I Care College have provided us with 2 quotes for Chromebooks & after sales care and 2 quotes for a better Wi-Fi connectivity, also with after sales care. With this, I Care College hopes to modernize and improve their IT-department and turn it into an IT-training centre.

We want to support I Care College with their fundraising, so that those first IT-peer tutors can complete the training and the IT-training centre can be set up ready to train the other 2000 students.

Caroline Afolabi-Deleu

Founding Director/Trustee of Success4All

Success4All: https://www.s4a.org.uk  IBAN: GB68ABBY09012922365303, BIC:ABBYGB2LXXX

I Care College: https://icarerad.com/college/