MTN Uganda staff donates ICT lab to Uganda Technical College Lira
A humanitarian move made by MTN Uganda staff under their annual Y’ello Care initiative is expected to improve the quality of education of 760 students at Uganda Technical College Lira where a fully-fledged ICT lab was set up and donated to the college.
On Thursday 10th June 2015 a team of MTN staff headed to Lira where they opened the ICT resource centre and engaged in community work including cleaning up of the college premises and donating the cleaning materials to the college.
The College management through Senior Lecturer Mrs. Mary Ajore thanked MTN for the good gesture and prayed that other private companies emulate MTN to work with government institutions in an effort to improve learning through the ICT platform.
MTN Uganda General Manager Corporate Services Anthony Katamba reiterated MTN’s commitment to continue working with government institutions such as Uganda Technical College Lira to drive ICT based initiatives.
“As MTN staff we are aware that the Internet is the future and the future starts now. We have brought along an MTN mobile shop and internet bus to reinforce our efforts. In addition our staff has set up a fully-fledged ICT lab with 15 brand new computers.”
The Guest of honour of the day, Municipal Education Officer Jane Francis Ofungi appreciated MTN staff initiatiative as a meaningful CSR initiative. She urged schools to embrace the new ICT driven trend which is ideally part of the global trend.
“Education system must now be more practical and technology driven especially in this new age trend. Now that MTN has set up this modern facility for this college, I urge you to be exemplary in this effort”, she said.
Every month of June, employees across MTN’s international footprint take time off to physically get involved in activities that uplift communities around them through financial, physical and emotional contributions of staff and MTN as a corporate citizen.
For the next 21 days MTN staff will be traversing the whole country from Central, to Western region in Kasese district; Northern region in Lira district, South Western region in Masaka and Kisoro; and finally in Eastern region in the districts of Mbale and Bududa. Throughout the 21 days, similar ICT Hubs will be set up by Staff of MTN.
The launch also featured the state of the art MTN Internet Bus which aided training, mentorship and career guidance for learners and teachers.
The MTN Internet Bus, a vital component for the promotion of ICT, is targeting to have 2500 people as beneficiaries of the training by the end of the 21-day programme.
In line with MTN’s vision “To lead the delivery of a bold, new Digital World to our customers”, several operations will again engage in activities that seek to introduce learners and teachers to the digital world.
Education is one of the most important investments a country can make to its people and its future and it is critical to reducing poverty and inequality and MTN Uganda realizes and understands the need for investment in the education sector.
According to United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), each additional year of schooling can increase a person’s income by up to 10%, and raises average annual GDP by 0.37%.
Funding of the project is solely dependent on contributions from MTN Staff who also physically get involved in the campaign activities. Leveraging on MTN’s regional presence across the country, the planned activities will allow a cross section of staff to participate in this worthy Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.
