Teaching 20 children to make computers second nature

The first lessons covered what a computer is, the parts and devices used to interact with it, and proper typing form. The students were a group of 20 children, and Youth Tech asked their school to send an equal number of boys and girls, "as we were aware that everyone should be allowed the opportunity, regardless of their gender," he says.

He launched Youth Tech with some of his friends as a service learning project. The aim, he says, is to teach children "who did not have access to the same privileges as we do how to use computers efficiently to get any task done to the point that it becomes second nature."

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The idea came when he took up the position of IT intern at his school, the International Community School of Abidjan. The role, he says, showed him "the inevitable need for computer skills that everyone has to have in the digital era we are barreling into."

"So far, our efforts have been fruitful," he says. In the last meeting, the team gave the children a test on everything taught up to that point. All of them passed. The average score was 87%.

The plan is to continue with using the internet safely and the services at the children's disposal.

The bigger plan is a computer lab. Youth Tech wants to equip the children's school with the basic necessities of one, so the students can go back and teach their friends what they learned, "creating a domino effect that will give every child at that school basic computer skills," he says. Some Chromebooks from ICSA have already been refurbished and are ready to be donated.