The co-winner of 2015 Tigo Digital Change-maker competition, Josephine Marie Godwyll, has embarked on a drive to empower children with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills in a bid to help children utilise technology as a learning tool.
In partnership with Tigo Ghana, the country’s leading digital lifestyle brand, an initiative called ‘Diggie Fair’ was held for over 150 students aged between 5 and 15 years from the True Love School at Agyrigano in Accra.
Children were engaged in various activities including Hackathon, digital cinema, virtual reality show, robotics and digital art.
Volunteers including Tigo staff also engaged the children in a discussion on ‘How Mobile Technologies Work’.
“For this first fair our theme was ‘leading children to unlock the mysteries of digital technology’. We want to shape the mind-set of children to see ICT as a tool for solving problems and not just for playing games,” explained young social entrepreneur Marie Godwyll, who runs an organisation called ‘Young At Heart Ghana’.
With her budding organisation, Marie Godwyll hopes to champion a revolution of digital literacy and creativity among Ghanaian children through workshops, digital innovators clubs, and digital innovators fairs to expose children to concepts like robotics, programming, and art with computers.
Looking back, says Marie Godwyll, “The Tigo Digital Change-maker competition has given me the needed boost in realizing my dreams of helping children appreciate and enhance their ICT skills.
“I can only imagine what the next generation will be able to achieve and the problems they will be encouraged to solve using ICT as a tool, but it all depends on exposing them to its utility at an early age.”
A trained Geomatic Engineer, Marie Godwyll was introduced to the computer and its functionalities at an early age of five, and she strongly believes her interest and ability to creatively utilize digital tools as an Engineer were harnessed right from her childhood.
Source: tv3network.com|Ghana
