Continuing coverage of the IICT course we’re sponsoring at the Hackers For Charity Computer Training Center alongside iheartgo. Sorry this one’s a bit late, from last week’s course. I especially like this entry because although this is a design / entrepreneur / technical class, Anthony and Melissa have really brought service into the equation. Something quite obviously near and dear to our hearts.
Social responsibility – an ethical theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large.
This is the second topic within the first component, and boy is it making a splash! (see picture below) As the mission of the Institute is to “provide a practical education,” we’ve designed the entire curriculum so that every assignment is a project in order to have students immediately applying what they learn. One of the issues we’ve heard about in Jinja is the gap between theoretical learning and practical application to the end that finding a job, even with a bachelor’s degree, proves challenging.
In that vein, we began our social responsibility lesson at 8am on Monday with our arrival at a local orphanage to do, well, whatever they asked us to. The facility is actually run by one of our students and her husband, so the impact of giving back is in no way removed or missed. Students were put to work right away, as they rolled up their sleeves to empty and clean the tank that provides water for the entire orphanage, clean the bathrooms, wash the windows and doors, and do the children’s laundry. As the children were all at school, the director said that they would be pleasantly surprised when they return home; they didn’t know we were coming and usually have to complete these tasks themselves. Our enthusiastic group went like gangbusters and were able to complete most of the work in less than 2 hours time. This certainly let us see another side of our largely quiet and serious class. We look forward to going back for round 2 tomorrow, and, as Anthony said, it’s only a shame for them because now they have no excuse to be shy in class. What a great time to see such joyful, no-holds-bar hard work for the good of others. Our students really inspired us today.
