By Digna D. Banzon
DAVAO CITY, Nov. 20 (PNA) — The Davao ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Council in collaboration with the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines will launch the DigiBayanihan here on Friday.
National ICT Confederation of the Philippines president Wit Holganza said the DigiBayanihan is a volunteer activity that will be held in different communities to ensure that Filipinos are digitally literate and to harness their power of technology as an aid in improving their lives.
"This is a national volunteer movement on digital literacy and citizenship," she said.
The DigiBayanihan will be piloted in five cities and one province in Mindanao among them Davao and General Santos cities and the Sarangani Province; Bacolod and Naga cities in Visayas, and Legaspi City in Luzon.
Holganza also solicit volunteers who will empower Filipinos on digital skills.
ICT Davao executive director Victor Sapar said there will be simultaneous free ICT trainings that will be conducted in various locations in Davao City.
He said that Grade 4 pupils from Zonta Elementary School will be trained on Basic Drawing and Digital Art using Window Paint to be conducted by volunteers from the Davao Graphic Designers Community, Enhance the Creativity Club of the University of the Immaculate Conception, ICT Davao, and Tambayan, a Davao-based non-government organization (NGO).
Sapar said persons with disabilities will also get to learn from volunteers from the Google Business Group, Davao Virtual Assistants Association and ICT Davao on how to use applications for e-mail, word processing and presentation slides as well as required skills and specialization options to become virtual assistants.
Adding to the line-up of digital training content is a specialized workshop on November 22 developed to address a vital national concern regarding the safety of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).
Conducted by Mynd Consulting, ICT Davao and DC-IGDD, abandoned family members of OFWs, members of the Davao City Social Services Division Office (CSSDO), and the Davao City Integrated Gender & Development Division (DC-IGDD) will be taught how to use an online mobile and PC application called OFW Watch, which interconnects Filipinos working abroad to their families and loved ones as well as monitor their conditions.
He said the OFW Watch is a community service initiative of Davao-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, Mynd Dynamic Team, which was founded in 2006 by a former OFW, Ms. Myrna Padilla.
As an OFW for over 20 years, Padilla established OFW Watch (www.ofwwatch.com) to keep track of weak and vulnerable Filipinos abroad. Digibayanihan participants of the OFWWatch session will gain familiarity with the use of the OFW Watch platform and become members of the OFW Watch Virtual Community, while half of them will be able to report their missing OFW relatives.
On the other hand, ICT Davao president Atty. Samuel Matunog said “digital literacy is a critical skill to develop towards the attainment of inclusive growth. Our people need this skill for effective participation and empowerment and ICT Davao is pleased to be part of this nationwide endeavor as the umbrella organization of ICT trade associations in Davao region”.
Aimed at raising the level of digital literacy among the Filipino population, the workshops form part of DigiBayanihan, the unified efforts of the government, academe and IT industry to equip a greater number of Filipinos with 21st century skills that will enhance global competitiveness, workforce employability and entrepreneurship, he said.
Intel Philippines Corporate Affairs Group Manager and Secretariat for DigiBayanihan Yvonne Flores said, “In the spirit of bayanihan, we have been amplifying our efforts to advance digital literacy as a priority in the Philippines’ human and economic development agenda”.
“DigiBayanihan partners are working together to reach Filipinos who want to learn basic digital skills and use these skills to transform the way they do their daily activities. The key here is to teach new ways of doing daily activities with the use of ICT devices. The trainees should immediately realize how the use of ICT devices can improve the way they access information, communicate and more importantly how they transact business,” she said.
The DigiBayanihan movement, partner organizations such as Intel Philippines, Children International-Philippines, the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (ICTO-DOST), the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), the Philippine Community e-Center Network (PhilCeCNet), the Philippine Society of IT Educators (PSITE), Technical Vocational Schools and Associations of the Philippines (TEVSAPHIL), and the UP System IT Foundation (UP-SITF) are working together to consolidate ongoing initiatives on digital literacy. (PNA)
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