Sabrina’s Technovation Journey – Technovation
Please read this wonderful article on Sabrina. Sabrina spent a year working with Oysters and Pearls, one of Technovation’s partners that implements their program in Uganda.
January 2020 Tech Camp Kicks-Off With Team-Building Sessions
First day at the annual January 2020 Oysters & Pearls-Uganda Tech Camp with several fun challenges for the participants.
Virtual Reality Games Excite Gulu
Virtual Reality was celebrated in Gulu this year and hosted by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda.
Oysters & Pearls-Uganda Sponsorship Changed a Blind Student’s Dream
Fingers flying over the letters of his laptop in typing speed, Basil Onen, is undeniably more keyboardinated than many sighted people. But of course, many didn’t ever imagine that Basil would one day be able to use a computer. Not even Basil himself, who, having been born blind, spent his first 10 years at home, as his two siblings and every other child in the neighborhood went to school. “If there is a part of my life I would want to cut away, then it is my childhood,” he stated, emphasizing how “particularly excruciating” it was.
More blind & visually impaired enroll in computer training at O&P Uganda
Oysters & Pearls-Uganda continues to offer computer training to the blind and visually impaired community members across Uganda. JAWS is a computer screen reader program that speaks aloud the screen for those who are blind or visually impaired. O&P-UG has a Country License agreement which enables us to negotiate an affordable price for education. In Uganda, an estimated 30,000 people lose their sight annually, yet the Uganda National population and Housing Census 2014 shows that already, more than 2.1 million people are living with visual impairment and 250,000 are totally blind.
Technovation Ambassador Determined to Recruit more Girls to Develop Apps
For women and girls in Uganda, a dream career in computing is still incredibly challenging. Despite its extraordinary rise over the last five decades, and the country’s ever increasing reliance on technology, women and girls still constitute the lowest percentage of the workforce in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers.
The dismal percentage of women in the field of STEM is explained by a number of barriers that smother their ideas right from childhood.
The notion that computing can only be handled by the male gender is deeply ingrained in Ugandan society. Consequently, the few girls who aspire to join the computing world first ponder if they haven’t been overrating themselves, and hesitate to geek.
“During initial mentoring in Technovation, girls took so long to finally share their idea. And when they did I wondered why they were afraid to express it,” said Sabrina Atwiine.
A student ambassador for Technovation in Uganda, Sabrina hopes to change the status quo by recruiting more girls in Uganda to join Technovation when she returns from the international Technovation Pitch event in August in California.
“I want to contribute in changing the misconception that girls can’t handle anything scientific.”
The cultural and systemic barriers to STEM fields has led to
O&P Uganda’s Makerspace Entices Ugandan Teacher to Prep for Retirement
Today is Cosmas Okumu’s first day for a training in electronics at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda’s Makerspace.
A Physics teacher at Negri College in Gulu, Cosmas says he gets thrilled when he makes anything electronic.
“I made an inverter as part of my research at Kyambogo University last year. My supervisor looked at me with respect. I felt good. Today, the feeling is back,” he said.
Today Cosmas assembled a circuit, and the sweet memory of winning came back.
But now, it is not all about the excitement that comes with invention. Cosmas wants to make good use of the makerspace, to craft his retirement job.
“The training is preparing me for old age,” he said.
“When I retire, I will open a shop where I will repair electronics, and earn a decent income,” he added.
Only today, he was able to assemble a circuit; the achievement made his hope soar. Cosmos is ready to learn more in a few months.
Cosmas’ plan for a retirement job is a wise idea, considering that many on retirement in Uganda face challenges acquiring their most basic needs. Although the government introduced the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment program in 2012, each beneficiary gets only 25.000 shillings (about US $8) each month, and
Giving Gulu University Science Students More Skills in Technology
Gulu University students at O&P Tech Lab
Lack of, or inadequate science materials, in addition to ill-equipped laboratories in most Universities in Uganda have always led to the passing-out of poorly trained science graduates who are unable to innovate, or solve simple problems in the community. Oysters & Pearls – Uganda is filling that vacuum, by giving hands-on training to Gulu University students in Computer Science topics at their makerspace.
In the last week of October, Oysters & Pearls – Uganda trained Gulu University students in robotics and programming, among other technology related topics. More than fifty students benefited from the program, and some of them confessed to have gotten their first hands-on experience.
Now, the students gather at the Oysters & Pearls – Uganda Lab every Wednesday and Thursday, to get more practical skills in various fields in technology.
Fernando Opifeera, a first year student Bachelor of Science in ICT says the makerspace is giving him an opportunity to learn more in his course because; “At the Makerspace, I am able to match the theory I learned at the university with its practical application .”
This initiative is also simplifying the learning process of a number of the science students
Oysters & Pearls-Uganda Offers Hands-on Training to University Students
The president of the Faculty of Science at Gulu University, is grateful for the hands-on training given by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, to students of Information Technology and Computer Science.
Jimmy Lukwago, a final year student of Information Technology at the University, expressed his gladness during a career guidance and practical computing seminar at the University, where Oysters & Pearls was a main contributor.
During the event, Oysters & Pearls-Uganda’s director of technology, Jacob Odur, showed the students how a 3D printer works.
Victor Paul, our robotics trainer introduced the students to embedded systems using Arduino. Victor and the students explored the Arduino hardware; looking at both digital and analog pins, power pins, and barrel jack for external power. Other fields that the students experienced was Arduino Integrated Development environment, IDE, and installation of Arduino software and UNO board drivers.
The students also practiced basic programming, for instance, blinking a Light Emitting Diode, LED, and other hardware, such as breadboard used in electronic prototyping/testing of circuits, among others.
Jimmy acknowledged that many of the science students had not experienced such practical work, and had definitely not seen a number of the materials used.
“The university does not have enough materials for practical work, so a majority of the science students are not exposed. This