BACKGROUND
In Africa, 56% of families live below poverty line. Food security is still a very big challenge in Africa. As a third world continent, development takes a long time to reach the people of our continent, more especially, people living in rural areas as well as informal settlements.The world itself is becoming a digital arena. Everything is digitized as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has taken over, but unfortunately, not for some of our people in Africa, who are faced with generational poverty, social injustice, racial discrimination as well as illiteracy, are lagging behind. Village Tech Academy, also known as VTA, exists to create a platform for the youth in rural villages, informal settlements, also referred to as slums, an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of tech as well as an introduction to coding and software development. Young people from the above mentioned backgrounds, cannot afford to pay for tuition of such skill. Village Tech Academy offers free tuition to the youth of such economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Our learning centers are spaces that have been offered to us temporarily, by leadership structures of communities where we operate, mostly churches. In the present moment we operate in two provinces in South Africa, that is in the Western Cape and North West. South Africa is regarded as the most unequal country in the world. Khayelitsha, where Village Tech is based in the Western Cape, is a good example of inequality. The N2 highway separates the township and Somerset West, where their counterparts are fed with silver spoons.
We don’t give up, knowing that in the long run, the effort we put to instill skills in the youth of our continent, will bring fruitful rewards that will last a lifetime.
- Motlogolo O. Rakate
Photo Credit: Apple Maps
Photo Credit: C & T
Photo Credit: C & T
Photo Credit: C & T
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