Computer Education in Nzara

 Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course

On November 24^th 2011, 17 computer students celebrated their graduation from Alison Tepe's Basic Computer Training Course. The program consist of 2 months of arduous computer training that gives the student a basic understanding of how to perform actions using a computer.

The training includes:

•     Introduction to computers

•      Microsoft Word processing

•     Microsoft Excel

•      Microsoft Power Point

The program course also included internet, unfortunately internet had not reached Nzara at that time.

The graduation ceremony took place outside the Cathedral Compound with 27 people in attendance, 17 of which, were graduates.

The graduation began with a prayer lead by Bishop Samuel Peni, and then proceeded into an open forum. This gave the graduates a chance to address two of Nzara's towns elders, Bishop Samuel Peni & the Commissioner of Nzara County, with insights from the computer training program.

The first speaker began by stating, “Learning is the key to success, without which nothing can materialize.” Then proceeded to thank Bishop Samuel Peni for sending Alison Tepe to Kampala to undergo a 6 month computer training course and bringing him back to Nzara to lead his own computer training course to help introduce and educate the people of Nzara about the use of computers.

He went on discussing the previous situation, of how those who wanted to learn basic computer skills would have to travel to Yambio daily to attend class, and how he and many others could not afford to abandon their daily duties to attend those computer classes.

 

He concluded by saying, “This computer training program has taught me a lot, I, and the others are the pioneers of this course, and our hope is that it continues and only gets better.”

When Alison got up to speak he addressed the challenges he came across while leading this course.

“When this program started there were 17 students and only 2 computers at the time, it was my hope that the number of students would increase as well as the number of computer. One of my wishes came true when the class received 2 more computers to be used for their training.

 However, being a single teacher teaching 17 students basic computer skills with only 4 computers has been very challenging as well as trying to teach some students who I don't share a common language with. My hope for the continuation of this program is that another teacher is provided or an assistant, to help the students receive the best training possible.”

Following Alison was Bishop Peni. “When I first came to this diocese I wrote a project for an outside source to provide computers for us, thankfully the ECS Church of Salisbury was nice enough to donate computers to us, on the condition that we had a qualified teacher leading the computer course. From there I sent Alsion to Kampala to undergo his training.

I would like to thank all of you for persevering through to the end of this program. As you know, you all are the first to go through this course and receive your computer training certificate in Nzara. Understand that beginnings always have challenges, and I am glad you have persevered through them, to the end, and to this moment.

Regarding the shortage of computers, we are hoping that Bob North brings with him 10 laptops for us to utilize for the benefit of this program.

Looking ahead, we are hoping to soon have internet in Nzara, and we encourage all of you to come back and receive training on how to use the internet.”

The Commissioner spoke briefly, thanking Bishop Peni for setting up this program, and congratulated the graduates on their success.

“The word of today is commitment. With commitment you go through many challenges, regardless of the difficulty level of the challenge, if you are committed you will see it through, just as you all have done.

As I look around I notice that my daughter is the only female who participated and has graduated from this computer training course. Whenever you go to a workshop or participate in a training program, I want to encourage you to bring your wives with you, and to start putting them first.

We Sudanese have started with a hard and rough background, but now we are in the right gear, keep up the good work, and congratulations on your success thus far.”