Digital Education for Youth with Disabilities

2015 is been started with the right foot. Along with one of our most important allies, the Medellin Library Network, we leaded one training session in the Municipal Library of a rural town in the Antioquia region. Hispania was the place selected for our first workshop of the year, developed in January.

Thanks to your generosity, 13 people could attend to an awareness session and learn about inclusion of people with disabilities in public libraries. During the class, they learned how to use ICT tools, some of them designed to get better access to information and improve the social and economic opportunities of these people.

The goal of the workshop was involve workers, leaders, volunteers and librarians in the creation of an atmosphere open to knowledge where everyone has a place, as they face new ways to get effective communication and know how to incorporate and treat people with disabilities in learning spaces.

All the assistants showed enthusiasm and participated actively in the activities prepared. One of them, was to fit the place of a person with disabilities when he/she has to do something related with his/her disability, like write without hands or read without sight. This gave them the motivation to keep moving forward and help people with disabilities in their community, as they valuate their own capacities.     

With your support, you are changing not just the life of people with disabilities, but the life of the ones surrounding them. At the end of the session, the attendees were aware of the importance of the ICT tools in the inclusion and the role libraries play in the transformation of the way disabilities are seen.

THANKS TO YOU we are not behind the technological wagon, we are inside of it and we want to keep getting more people in. Right now we are designing more workshops to give digital education to youth and old, with and without disabilities. Let’s develop all of them together!

We have great news!

Our digital education and entrepreneurship training project, completed with the support of our allies APWINC, EAFIT Social EAFIT, finish on a high note as more than a 170 women from the most vulnerable areas of Medellin, completed their courses and attended their graduation.

The program gave the chance to many young women; some of them with disabilities to discover what technology can do for their growth and development. The courses empowered women participating in the project to turn their business ideas into businesses, helping them become more independent and improving their self-esteem.

Thanks to your generosity, the participating group of young women with disabilities was able to acquire technical knowledge about creating and managing their own business using technology. They also learned basic principles in economics, marketing tools and the use of social networks to improve their business ideas.

This training was also important for the communities of the participating women, since the contents they learned can be replicated, creating an entrepreneurial and successful environment for their livelihoods to improve.

Graduation was a very emotional for many of these women and their families, for some of them it was the first time they receive a diploma. They dressed up and receive the diploma from their trainers, took pictures to remember this memorable moment in their life, changing their destiny, opening their doors to new opportunities.

It was a very special event tears of joy were all over the place, and for us, our team or trainers and everyone involve is a source of inspiration to continue creating opportunities for people that need our help the most. Thanks to your generous donations, we can keep on working with young people with disabilities that need it the most.