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Women In Technology, Kingston, Jamaica

Chris Loperena works with Tamara Ebanks

Women in Technology (WIT), which took place between January and March 2004, was a technology training program designed to give women the technological skills to make them more competitive in Jamaica’s severely depressed job market, and to facilitate the sustainability and growth of the Myrtle Ferguson Centre. The Myrtle Ferguson Center also provides vocational training in English, Math, Bakery Production and Catering.

The objective of this cooperative project was to add a course in Information Technology and computer literacy to the Myrtle Ferguson Women’s Centre’s current curriculum. During an intensive ten-week Computer Training Seminar, 13 students of the centre participated in a computer training seminar hosted by Rising Roots International with the goal of preparing to instruct the new course during the following semester. WIT participants learned web-site design and maintenance and completed a web site for the Myrlte Ferguson Centre as a final project.

Why the Myrtle Ferguson Centre?

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the Caribbean. These teen mothers usually never return to school as the result of the severe financial burden of single motherhood. The Myrtle Ferguson Centre, one of few institutions in Jamaica that has attempted to fill this gap, offers young mothers another chance at career development. In its almost ten-year existence, the Centre has only been able to offer specific skills training and academic courses in cosmetology, bakery production, catering, math and English. Rising Roots was approached for the prospect of adding Information Technology to the centre's curriculum.

Rising Roots’ program, Women In Technology, significantly expanded the Myrtle Ferguson Centre’s ability to offer the women a definite career path. The IT sector is one of the fastest growing in Jamaica today, so providing skills that will meet the growing workforce demand for computer-literate personnel to women who might find it difficult to access this type of training has greatly improved the opportunities of WIT participants.

 

 

The Jamaica Project Team, 2004
 

 

The following goals were achieved in the three months Rising Roots spent in Kingston:

· Sixteen women learned to effectively use the programs included in the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access)
· All participants learned to effectively use the Internet for research, education, and communication.
· All participants were trained in web-site design, culminating in the creation of a website for the Myrtle Ferguson Women’s Centre- see www.myrtleferguson.org.
· Social activism was promoted regarding women’s rights in Jamaica and to encourage the initiation of popular education movements to combat the high rates of teenage pregnancy.
· A series of workshops were hosted on environmental and human rights issues worldwide including the effects of globalization, human rights violations in Latin America and the Caribbean, environmental destruction, and labor rights issues.
· Non-profit administration and business planning workshops were held to aid women in finding and/or improving employment opportunities.
· A core group of 6 women were trained to continue teaching the computer courses at the center.

WIT was graciously funded by:

The Mama Cash Foundation of the Netherlands

Citrix Corporation

The Jamaican Consulate of New York

Air Jamaica

The Fraser Family Foundation

Maxfield Bakery

We send our sincerest thanks to all of those who made the first session of WIT possible in 2004.


 
 
 
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