(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has attracted widespread support to host its first Children’s ICT festival. The Festival takes place on Friday 22 May at the Guyana International Conference Centre from 8:30 a.m.
The theme of this event is “Protecting Children in Cyberspace” which is in keeping with the global theme of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day which was observed globally on May 17th 2009.
The ICT Festival is being coordinated by the ICT for Development (ICT4D) Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat, and is co-funded by the European Union. Other collaborating partners include the Ministry of Education, Guyana and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). A number of private sector companies are also on board both as facilitators for the workshops and participants in the exhibition.
The target audience for the workshops will comprise more than 120 children in Guyana, within the 9 -14 year age group. There will be an additional workshop for parents and teachers. The workshops will be facilitated by companies and agencies that are involved in the ICT industry in Guyana.
The workshops for children are: Making/Producing a Personal Video; Making/Producing Music; Creating a Website; and News Production. The workshop for parents and teachers will seek to provide Guidelines on Child-safe Internet Use.
In addition to the closed workshops, there will be an exhibition to which the public is invited to attend. The list of partners and exhibitors is comprised of Brutal Tracks; UNICEF; Ministry of Education, Guyana; University of Guyana; Global Technology; Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company; Brainstreet Learning; DIGICEL; the Guyana Government Information Agency (GINA); Pressy Enterprise; Starr Computer and GuyanaNet.
