Sunday, July 8, 2007

Bridging the gap - Article in the local newspapers

Bridging the gap: all signs positive for start Zanzibits Multimedia School of Zanzibar

STONE TOWN, Sunday 27th of may 2007. Plans for the new multimedia School of Zanzibar, Zanzibits, are well underway. In cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Women and Children Development of Zanzibar, Butterfly Works NGO (Amsterdam) and Nairobits NGO (Nairobi), Mr. Guy Mullens, the initiator of Zanizbits, will open the first multimedia school of Zanzibar early in 2008.

The Zanzibits initiative will create a platform for Zanzibar youths with the potential and motivation to learn a multimedia specialty that will facilitate their career development and their interaction with youths around the world. Other aims include the improvement of their capacity to deal with social factors affecting their quality of life, and the enhancement of self-esteem, creativity and critical out-of-the-box thinking.

In its pilot year, 20 youths (boys and girls?) from the Stone town area will be selected to enrol in the Zanzibits Multimedia School. After a strict procedure lasting one month, 10 students will remain to finish the one-year course. Students who finish successfully will have enough skills to ensure either formal or self-employment in Zanzibar or abroad. The target for the second year is that youths from all across Zanzibar, including Pemba, will get the chance to enrol.

CourseThe course covers basic computer knowledge, the workings of the web, multimedia production, website design, digital photography and flash-animation. Teachers will be trained by professionals from Nairobi, and their skills and knowledge will be updated every three months to assure competence at the highest level.

The goal of Zanzibits is not only to ensure that graduates get a job, support a family and contribute to the national wealth but also, and equally important, that they learn to think, evaluate, criticize, understand and contribute to the health of the society and to give back what they have received from it.

Multimedia
Multimedia is one of the main ways of communicating in the information age we live in. By teaching the latest theories and tools to today’s youth, Zanzibits believes it will also contribute to a brighter future for the youths of tomorrow. Guy Mullens: “The African continent is still lagging behind when it comes to digital communication, and this gap must and can be bridged.”

Guy Mullens
The initiator of the Zanzibits School of Multimedia, Mr. Guy Mullens, has been active in the IT and internet sector for over 10 years. He is confident that this project will be a success: “I believe that we can make a difference, and the time to start is today.” Mr. Mullens also thinks Africa can contribute on a world level in multimedia design: “These kids are very creative, but they have not really been given the chance to develop that creativity. It will be a tough journey, maybe a long one, but I am confident that, at the end of the day, we will win.”

The Zanzibits NGO initiative will need all the support it can get on a local, national and international level. Visit http://www.zanzibits.com/ for more information.

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