Computer School for Youth in Sierra Leone

One year ago Alie O. Sesay started the first computer school in the centre of Sierra Leone: the Gbonkolenken Youth Computer Training Institute (GYCTI). His goal is to bring basic computer skills to youths, teachers, nurses and school going pupils in his town and the surrounding villages. Many youths in this region simply do not know how to use a computer and are 100% computer illiterate. This project is helping to change this by providing basic computer training, but to make his project succeed he needs support!

Read more on the project below:

In today’s world, information technology is a key component in the success of any community or country. Unfortunately, the high cost of education to acquire computer related skills in certain regions around the world prevents underprivileged youths from availing these skills. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2020, the United Nations ranked Sierra Leone 182 out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index. In the country education is compulsory for the primary and secondary levels, but teacher and school shortages have made this difficult to implement. The literacy rate is 43.3 percent. A brutal civil war ravaged the country between 1991 and 2002 and destroyed over 1,270 schools. While the situation has improved since the war’s end, problems still exist.

In Yele-Gbonkolenken Chiefdom, in the centre of Sierra Leone, up to one third of the total population are made up of young women and men. Of this group, 50% are unemployed and 35% illiterate and unskilled. Currently, in the whole Gbonkolenken Chiefdom there is no computer training school available. For this reason we want to establish Gbonkolenken Youths Computer training institute, an institute which will help the young people to have basic computer skills and also achieve their goals and become self-employed. This essential training is in great demand for school going pupils, unemployed youths and teachers providing a much needed foundation and equipping them for their future success.

We have started this fundraising because we need your help. We only have three laptop computers which are not working properly and we cannot serve as many as we want, because we do not have good working computers. With your help, we can reach out to as many as over 200 people this year. Would you consider making a donation to our organization? As little as €5 to help establish a computer lab for young youths and school going pupils to have computer basic skills.

The organization has been officially established and approved by the government. GYCTI has a board, a constitution and a bank account. Alie O. is working with other volunteer teachers to provide computer training, but he is lacking the funds to make the school grow. You can find the official documents via this link: Certificates & Project Proposal