THE DIGITAL CLUB PROJECT(DCP)
I. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
The Internet, which started as a private network, has become a global network with millions of users connecting to it every minute and everywhere, irrespective of their ages. The internet presents vast opportunities for the Cameroonian Youths and digital technology has been identified as one of the key factors in achieving the sustainable development goals, since all the nine goals are directly or indirectly related to digital technology.
Despite the advantages of the Internet to society in general and the Cameroonian youths in particular, and the role of digital technology in achieving the sustainable development goals, it presents many security challenges especially to young people. Young people are currently targeted online by predators due to their vulnerability and inexperience online. Many Cameroonian youths do not also know how to take advantage of the internet and how to use it to empower themselves. They rather spend more time on hate speech or viewing contents that may not be proper for their ages.
Despite the sensitization, Cameroonian youths are still not getting the best from the internet. A research was carried out early this year by Cameroon Internet Governance Organization (CAMIG), and it was noticed that online addiction among students was seriously affecting their academic performance. According to the research, students who initially did not owned smart phones that were connected to the internet, suddenly witnessed a drastic drop in their results when they owned these devices. This due to the fact that these devices enabled them to spent most of their time chatting online even while in class. They also gave little time to their assignments or examination preparation. We therefore want to stress on the issue of balancing of time, and using these devices to help them in assignments and research, so that their results should rather improve when they are connected.
The youths are the main target of our organization on this project, though it can be beneficial to all age groups. We want to start with those in secondary schools. This is because at this age most of the youths are beginning to be exposed to mobile devices that give them access to the internet at anytime and anywhere. Also at this age the children are anxious to discover the world and the internet is usually the place where they go and get connected on different social media platforms, which may expose them to dangerous contents and insecurity threats. Some of them may even be prompted to give confidential information about their homes and families by predators, and this may present a security threat not only to the kids but to the entire family.
Also at the secondary school age children are very smart in mastering technology and using them. But because most of them do this without proper orientation, that smartness coupled with anxiety to discover pushes them to danger. We want to orientate them on how to use the internet so that they can use that smartness in the positive direction and benefit from the vast opportunities online. Also that smartness, if properly developed could enable them to become digital wizards in future and that will enable them to play a vital role in the digital economy. Our goal is to make sure that when these kids are online, they should have confidence in what they are doing online and they should be responsible. This will enable them to reap maximum benefit from the opportunities online.
Cameroon Internet Organization (CAMIG) which is the Safer Internet Day representative for Cameroon has thus identified this as a serious problem and wishes to address it through the Digital Club Project (DCP). We have the support of the ministry of Posts and Telecommunications who will be ready to provide us with some experts and the European Network of Safer Internet Centers has provided us with vast resources to use for this project. The Organization equally has experts who are graduates of the Diplofoundation online courses on child online protection and Internet Governance in Africa.
I. Objectives of the project
The objective of the project is to empower Cameroonian youths digitally. This will enable them to get maximum benefit from the internet under safe conditions, so that the internet should be an asset and not a liability. This will be done through the Digital Club Project (DCP).
The digital club project will involve visiting secondary schools and educating students on safe and responsible practices online. Making them to understand in a very simple form how the internet operates, enlightening them on the vast opportunities online and how they can tap the best from it without exposing themselves to insecurity and unsolicited contents.
In other to make the project sustainable and equally to take advantage of peer education a digital club will be formed in each of the schools visited whose activities will be monitored and sponsored by the organization.
III. Expected results of the project
This project is going to involve so many phases, since in the long run it is expected to cover all the schools in Cameroon. For this year, which is the first phase of the project and the launching, we shall cover schools in North West, Centre and South West Region Cameroons. In these areas we shall concentrate in the cities and will gradually expand to the remote areas in the subsequent phases.
Each school will be visited by our experts and students will be empowered on how to safely use the internet for their benefit. A digital Club will be created in each school and mentored by Cameroon Internet Governance Organisation (CAMIG). This club will help to promote interest in digital technology through their activities in school, and students will also meet regularly to share experiences and challenges in using the internet. Younger students will use this club to easily get acquainted to safe practices online. The club’s activities will be intensified as Safer Internet Day approaches with lots of exhibitions, competitions and sensitisations. All these activities will be mentored by CAMIG through the provision of resources and sometimes training of club leaders.
At the end of the project young students in Cameroon should develop confidence in using the internet. They will know exactly what the internet is and the vast opportunities that exist online for them, and how to tap the best from these opportunities. They will also be conscious of the challenges and risks and how to overcome them.
As a whole we expect the academic performance of the students to improve when they start owning mobile devices that are connected to the internet, since they will know how to use these devices in a way that will enable them benefit from the vast opportunities online. They will also use these devices to assist them in their assignments and research .
IV. Project implementation and management
The project will be implemented and managed by Cameroon
Internet Governance (CAMIG). Cameroon Internet Governance
Organization is a Non Profit Organization with
Authorization No.15/E.29/1111/VOL.8/ALPA of 11th August 2016, with headquarter in Bamenda
.
CAMIG has been confirmed as the contact point for Safer Internet Day celebration in the Republic of Cameroon by the European network of safer Internet Centres (INSAFE network). As such we are going to use resources provided to us by INSAFE to implement the project. We also have the support of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications who are ready to provide resource persons for the project.
CAMIG was also authorized by INSAFE to create a Safer Internet Day Committee in Cameroon, who collaborates yearly to make Safer Internet Day Celebration in Cameroon successful. The members of the Safer Internet Day Committee, who are equally experts in digital technology, will be part of this project.
V. Project budget
The first phase of the project will require the following financial resources for implementation and management and will target 20 secondary schools in each of the cities below. All figures are in CFA.
CITIES |
Yaoundé |
Bamenda |
Buea |
TOTAL |
Transportation (CFA) |
20x500 =100.000 |
20x500 =100.000 |
20x500 =100.000 |
300.000 |
Recruitment of Volunteers(10 each) |
10x35.000=350.000 |
10x35.000= 350.000 |
10x35.000= 350.000 |
1.050.000 |
T-shirts for Clubs |
20x5000 =100.000 |
21x5000 =105.000 |
20x5000 =100.000 |
300.000 |
Printing of Campaign materials |
50.000 |
50.000 |
50.000 |
150.000 |
General Management |
|
|
|
100.000 |
GRAND TOTAL |
|
|
|
1,500,000 |
The first phase of the project is evaluated at one milliom five hundred thousand francs (1,500,000 CFA) = 2,617.39730 US Dollars