School library workers and daughters celebrate Girls in ICT Day

During the celebration of Girls in ICT Day, on Thursday April 28 , school library workers and their daughters engaged in ICT activities. At the Telesur Training Centre the participants had presentations held for them, they were engaged in interactive sessions and ICT related games were played.
The International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated since 2011 on the 4th Thursday of the month of April in 150 countries. This day is implemented in 2011 by the International Telecommunication Union, which Suriname is also part of. This year Suriname celebrated this day for the 5th time. The Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tourism, organized this day together with the ICT Association, the Telecommunications Authority Suriname (TAS), Telesur, DEF- Suriname, Mati fu Tego foundation and The Probitas foundation.  The national theme was: Expanding Horizons for Mom and Me. The purpose of the "Girls in ICT Day" is pushing the boundaries and behavior of girls and young women within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. It is also intended to interest girls for a career in ICT.
Wendy Jap A Joe is one of the examples that women can also do well in the Information and Communication Technology sector. She is acting director of the TAS and has great pleasure in her work and learns new things every day. Roy Belfor, representative of the Telecommunications Company Suriname, Telesur, said that ICT is very important nowadays. He also indicated that there are many opportunities in the ICT sector, but due to the fact that there are still too few women actively involved and holding jobs in this sector, they miss out on fully benefitting of the opportunities.
TCT minister Andy Rusland indicated that the development of telecommunications in the past 30 years has grown enormously. Compared to 20 +years ago we can now share information quickly and efficiently. He pointed out that besides convenience and growth there are also risk associated with the use of ICT, meaning among others the Internet so that we need to be wary. According to the Minister, it's very important to take concrete actions to interest girls and women in ICT so that Suriname can be an example to the rest of the world. ICT is as necessary as any other study, stated Minister Rusland.
The activities in which the women participated were: information on education and career opportunities in the ICT sector, interacting with female role models from the sector; the Kahoot quiz with multiple choice questions to test the knowledge on ICT of the participants; Assembling: how to assemble a personal computer; demonstration of the possibilities of a 3-D Printer; a demonstration of Robotics. The organization also thought about entertainment, the participants had the opportunity to do some gaming. There were plenary sessions where lectures were given on how to safely use the Internet. Before the end, the mothers with their daughters played a game 'my mother is the best' . In this quiz the knowledge of both Mom and daughter were tested on ICT related subjects. The participants also got a demonstration of monitoring car that the authority uses to monitor the frequency spectrum in Suriname.
The events of this year’s Girls in ICT Day 2016, were conclude with the participants receiving a certificate.