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Title: GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE
Location:
Categories: Technology
Civil Society
Status:
In Planning
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
Goodwill social work centre, an Indian NGO based at Madurai,India has been declared as one of the four winners of “Panda IT Aid”, Panda Software International, Spain(www.pandasoftware.com). The other organisations are Save the Children (with a pan-European project),Spain, Fundación Braille (Uruguay) and Paideia (Paraguay). These four winning projects were selected from 15 finalists through a vote held among all the employees of the Panda Group across 56 countries. In a previous phase, the selection committee had selected the fifteen finalist initiatives from the more than 130 projects presented in this first edition of Panda IT Aid. GOODWILL receives a cash award of Euro25000 and Panda Software solutions for the Community Technology centres to be created in Madurai,India
The award is given to GOODWILL for setting up Community Technology Centres for children and young women in low and middle income families in and around Madurai, India. The aim of the project is to create Community Technology centres in Madurai, India, to teach women and children in low to middle income families about new information technologies. It aims to train young women and children, so that they can be incorporated in the labor market in local organizations or even set up new businesses and computer centres. Around 900 children and young women will benefit from the project within a span of THREE years.
GOODWILL has set up two Community Technology centres for children and young women in low and middle income Indian families in and around Madurai,Tamilnadu,South India.
Background:
Computer and telecommunications technologies are omnipresent in our society today. Computer usage-mail and internet use, and home purchases of computers are growing rapidly(Benton Foundation 1996a,Gonzalez 1995,Katz and Aspden 1997,Miringhoff and Carvalho 1996. At the same time, not everyone has adequate opportunities to learn about and use computer and information technologies. A large and growing gap remains between the technology "haves" and "have-nots." Differences in access to computer and communications technology exist by household income, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, age, and gender, with the greatest inequities occurring for those with the lowest income and the fewest educational opportunities (Anderson et al. 1995). The gap in computer ownership between the rich and the poor is widening (Katz and Aspden 1997, Williams 1996). As computers become integral to business, education, and other areas of life, these inequities result in greater implications for individuals' access to employment, knowledge, learning, and participation in our society. Community access centres such as schools,colleges, libraries and other public access points are particularly well used by those groups who lack access at home or at work. Breeden et al (1998) surveyed a number of community technology programs for low income residents and confirmed that tech access is in high demand, with both parents and children recognizing that computer proficiency results in academic and employment success. Bradley A. Corbett & Douglas Willms(2002) in their study have reported that 9 out of every 10(88%) of Canadian students have a computer at home, and 8 of every 10(81%) use a computer at home nearly every day. However Canadian students from low socioeconomic families were less likely to have access to computers and a link to the Internet at home. Further, it was reported that the students used computers mainly for accessing information on the internet, communication, word processing, and games. Less than one-third of students who used computers reported that they used them to help them learn.
Indeed there has been a rapid growth and improvement in the diffusion of technologies that have been designed to handle information and aid communication. In general, children and young adults in the developed countries have more opportunities to have access to and use of Information and Communication Technology.
In this information age while children and young adults are increasingly using new technologies in their schools, colleges, libraries, homes and communities, there is a high proportion of them in a developing country like India do not have access to these opportunities for acquiring computer skills, which are important to educational process nor can the parents afford a computer in the home.
Both children and youth in low and moderate income communities in rural and backward areas in urban pockets in and around the city of Madurai district, in the State of Tamilnadu, South India, are virtually shut out from accessing computers. Obviously enough, they are denied opportunities to learn to use computers and online communications at home or schools and colleges or in the community.
The Goodwill social work centre proposes to establish Community Technology Centres in response to concern about the growing gap between children and young adults of high socioeconomic status families and those who do not have due to low socioeconomic backgrounds. In the context of the project, a Community Technology Centre is defined as ‘a community service, social action, and/or educational facility where computers and related communications technologies are available to children and youth who otherwise might have little or no opportunity to use or learn to use these technologies’.
Though there are numerous Web browsing Centres and Internet Cafes in Madurai and its surrounding sub urban areas, which are run on a commercial basis, a Community Technology Centre that could cater to needs of children and young people especially those from the disadvantaged circumstance in low and moderate income families has not yet been established. The proposed project will aim at empowering children and youth of low and moderate income families with technology skills and usage in a community based setting.
Objectives:
1.To empower children and young men and women in low and moderate-income communities in villages with technology skills and usage in a community based setting.
2.To provide them with intensive hands-on computer literacy training based on real life exercises using MS Office 2000 and help them with computer skills to advance economically and compete professionally in today’s digital economy and
3.To offer them career guidance and information and to assist them for gainful employment in ICT related fields.
Milestones:
The Centre will establish Ten Community Technology centres in the major rural,suburban areas catering the needs of children and young men and women in the Madurai district. The Goodwill social work centre will identify children and young men and women in the age group of 15-30 and collect baseline information about the target population in the project areas.
NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES TO BE COVERED WITHIN THREE YEARS:
Each CTC will admit 500 participants per year and the total number of participants covered in a year will be 5000 from CTCs located in six project areas. During the tenure of three years it is estimated to cover 15000 children and young adults who would benefit from this project.
The Centre will design courses and learning objectives in the following areas 1.Introduction to computers 2.Word processing (level I and II) 3.Spreadsheets (level I and II) and 4.The Internet (level I and II). The strategies will include classroom teaching and exercises, class tests, hands-on training, Field placement training etc. The project will be implemented in the following phases:
I. Community mapping to identify interests and needs of prospective
Participants
II. Establishing TEN Community Technology Centres for children and young adults .
III. Plan for operational needs-space, hardware, software, furniture, and
furnishings, Personnel for the CTC etc.
IV. Designing curricula for various ICT courses and programmes
V. Enrolment of girls and young women
VII. Conducting a demographic survey
VIII. Pre assessment of Technology use and skills of girls and young women
IX. Initiating ICT programmes for girls and young women
X. Post assessment survey of the sampled population attending Community
Technology Centre
XI. Documentation and Research reporting
8.Project Timetable
The duration of the project will be 36 months (Three years) The time frame will be as follows:
1-4 months: Setting up Community Technology centres-Enrolment of children and young
adults – purchase of computers, furniture, furnishings, and curriculum designing,
Conducting demographic survey and pre assessment survey.
5-33 months: Programme implementation
34-36 months: Post assessment, Report writing
The project will train 15000 and young men and women in the age group of 15-30 in basic computer skills. The participants will acquire different skills namely 1.Data entry work 2. Word processing and DTP 3.Visiting/greeting/invitation cards, brochures, booklets etc 4.Data base preparation 5.Office management 6.Online data entry and formatting work 7.Use of Internet. Further, the Community Technology Centre will work in collaboration with local governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in contracting job work for them and also finding jobs for them in local organizations. The trainees will develop knowledge competencies and applicable skills in information and communication technology and will be equipped with different computer skills which would provide them with employment opportunities and advance economically in today’s digital economy.
The Centre has been granted accreditation for the computer training courses and programmes from Jai Shikshan Sansthan (JSS)-Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, and New Delhi. India. The Certificates issued by the above Ministry will be very valuable to the participants not only in securing personal loan from banks for self employment but also for getting jobs in ICT related work places.
10.Project monitoring and evaluation
The assessment methods will be “project-based” that is to say each participant will print out a copy of a document she has worked on as an evidence that she has met the learning objectives for the various computer literacy training courses and programmes. The evaluation methodologies will include 1.Checklist of tasks that participant print out using the note pad or word pad 2.In-class exercises 3.Production of a document showing the different skills learned Various instruments namely 1.Demographic survey 2.pre and post assessment survey 3.Generic member survey and 4.Technology user satisfaction questionnaire to elicit information from the target groups will be used.
PROJECT SCALABILITY AND REPLICABILITY
The Centre will use evaluation instruments to measure the impact of computer literacy training on the participants. Since the proposed project will be an innovative one, which is first of its kind in Madurai region in the State of Tamilnadu, South India, it is proposed to expand the activities and to replicate it to more areas to cater for demands of many children and young men and women who belong to low and moderate income status families.
12.Project Staffing:
The project will be managed by Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel, M.A., Ph.D- Project Leader and Prof (Mrs.) Kalaneethy Christopher, M.Sc., M. Phil-Honorary Secretary and Hon. Advisor, Goodwill Social Work Centre,Madurai,India. The Centre will appoint whole-time ICT Professionals and ICT Trainers to conduct the programmes and activities for the beneficiaries, who will be on a contract basis. The terms and conditions of employment will be determined accordingly.
PARTNERSHIPS
The Goodwill Social work Centre will partner with commercially run Computer Education Centres and Web Browsing Centres and Departments of Information Technology attached with Colleges of Engineering at Madurai for seeking technical and professional expertise and guidance in the execution of the ICT courses and programmes. This project partnership with local ICT institutions and resource centres will benefit the Centre in the use of professional expertise in various programme activities but also in finding job opportunities for the beneficiaries
14. Benefits
Since empowerment of the poor children and young men and women is a crucial pre-requisite for sustainable development, ICT is considered as one of the most powerful weapons in the empowerment process. The project will benefit them, which will generate acceptable investment returns through their active participation for their economic growth. It will benefit rural girls and young women adults in learning different computer skills and contracting job work in local organizations and also starting their own computer centres to take up word processing and DTP, data entry work, office management, online data entry and formatting work and data base preparation etc. Most importantly, it will offer opportunities for the Centre to network with local governmental organizations and non governmental organizations in contracting job work for them and also finding jobs for them in local ICT enabled service sector..
IMPACT
Children and young adults in low and moderate income communities in will be empowered with technology skills and usage in a community based setting. The intensive hands-on computer literacy training based on real life exercises using MS Office 2000 will enable them to acquire applicable technology skills to advance economically and compete professionally in today’s digital economy.
Budget:
A. Capital Equipments
S.No. ITEM Qty Approx.Price Total Amount
1 Computers with P4 10 Rs.55,000/- Rs.5,50,000/-
128 MB RAM, 40GB HDD,
15” Color Monitor, CD-ROM,
Multi-media, Keyboard, Mouse
modem & general configuration
as required.
2 Laser Printer HP Make 1 Rs. 35,000/-
3 UPS 3KVA/5KVA 1 RS. 55,000/-
4 Air-Conditioner 2 RS.35,000/- Rs. 70,000/-
5 Furniture & Light fixtures RS.4,00,000/-
7 Over Head Projector 1 RS. 35,000/-
8 Umax Scanner 1 Rs. 39,000/-
9 Technical Books Rs. 60,000/-
10 Licensed Software Packages Rs.3,00,000/=
Windows 2000/NT, Ms-Office, Turbo C,
Turbo C++, Visual Studio, Oracle, SQL,
PhotoShop, Flash, AutoCAD 2000, 3Dstudio Max,
Dream Weaver, Java, MSDN, Anti-virus tools, etc.
11.Lease amount for office premises as advance Rs. 2,00,000/-
Sub Total: Rs.17,44,000/-
B.Salaries
1. Project Coordinator
Rs.7000 x 36 months Rs. 2,52,000/-
2. ICT Trainers (2)
Rs.5000 x 36 months x 2 Rs. 3,60,000/-
3. Social Researcher
Rs.4500 x 36 months Rs. 1,62,000/-
4. Secretarial Staff(2) Rs. 2,88,000/-
Rs.400X 36 months
Sub Total Rs.10,62,000/-
C.Research expenses
Data collection, field visits to schools Rs. 1, 50,000/-
and community, computation work,statis-
tical analysis, stationery printing etc
D. Support Services
Office rental,stationery Electricity, Internet connection
Subscription, web site domain name registration,
Telephone rental etc.
Rs.1, 00,000 x 2 years. Rs.3,00,000/-
Transportation
Purchase of a four wheeler Van for Rs.9,00,000/-
village visits.
Auditor fees for three years. Rs. 40,000/-
TOTAL BUDGET FOR THREE YEARS Rs.41,96,000/
Needs:
The Centre is looking for grant help from potential funders and funding organisations for setting up more Community Technology Centres for the poor children and women in low and middle income Indian communities in our project areas. We invite you to be a project partner of the Goodwill Social Work Centre and seek your valuable financial assistance and computers for establishing Community Technology Centres for the children and women in villages and backward areas in Madurai, India.Your funds will be utilized for basic infrastructure requirements such as computer systems and accessories, internet connection, furniture, rent, electricity, books and computer learning materials, salary to staff etc. We invite you to join us in this innovative project and partner with us.
Please take a few moments to visit our website at http://mfcs.malianfoundation.org/goodwill/
Contact person:
Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel, M.A., Ph.D (social work)
Executive Director
Goodwill Social Work Centre
No: 5,South street Extension
Singarayar colony
MADURAI-625002
INDIA
Email: chriskan@satyam.net.in
Contact Name: PROF.DR.J.CHRISTOPHER DANIEL
Contact Email Address: chriskan@satyam.net.in
Contact Phone Number: +91 0452 2531175
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