ORT launches Ghanaian computer courses for girls, with support of UNESCO

Thanks to the support of UNESCO, Nduom Group and Coconut Grove Hotel, not only will ORT be able to educate these young girls, but the local library will also get new computers.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The library in Elmina, Ghana, will function as a new service of STEM education thanks to ORT (photo credit: Courtesy)
The library in Elmina, Ghana, will function as a new service of STEM education thanks to ORT
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Jewish Education network World ORT will open a series of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics courses (STEM) in the Ghanaian coastal town of Elmina to help young girls acquire the skills and education needed to secure employment in the global economy, it reported on Wednesday.
The girls, aged 9-12, will be taught by female students from a nearby university. Seeing as most of them lack computers and a web connection in their own homes, the courses will offer them the tools they need to navigate the digital age.
Thanks to the support of UNESCO, Nduom Group and Coconut Grove Hotel, not only will ORT (the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) be able to educate these young girls, but the local library will also get new computers.
“ORT plans to revolutionize the facility by converting the computer room into a dynamic Technology Center for Learning,” Director of World ORT’s International Cooperation program Celeste Angus said. The addition will include a smartboard and a projector. The free library is often the only place children and adult residents can get books and magazines.
Using tablets the girls could take home, they would be able to learn graphic design, game design, coding, video editing, math and science, Angus added.
Some 24 university students have shown interest in teaching in the program so far. The project is another effort taken in the West African state by ORT, which has been operating there since 1975.
The name ORT is derived from its name in Russian, Obchestvo Remeslenava Truda or Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades. It was founded in Saint Petersburg to teach young Jewish people work skills in 1880.


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