Microsoft South Africa today reaffirmed its commitment to community projects and empowerment, by announcing a programme geared towards refurbishing and upgrading its digital villages at SOS Children's Villages around the country.
This project will kick off with the SOS Cape Town Digital Village, which is one of four SOS Children's Villages that house one of these facilities.
Microsoft has set up digital villages in four of the seven SOS Children's Villages nationally.
"This digital village was set-up in 1999, with what was then state-of-the-art technology and we felt that it was time to upgrade this technology to continue to offer the community serviced by this village with the best user experience and access," says Chose Choeu, legal and corporate affairs director at Microsoft South Africa.
"We believe there is more to this investment than the provision of upgraded and updated hardware and software, and together with our partners, will be delivering additional training on our Unlimited Potential curriculum."
The digital village trainer will work with both the house mothers and aunts to empower them to provide continuous coaching to the children and also promote the use of information technology in managing the households.
"This digital village will open up the world of computer technology to the children that have been orphaned and abandoned. This facility will also equip our SOS mothers and aunts to assist the children with their homework and completing of school projects," adds Dawie Marais, Village director at the SOS Children's Village Cape Town.
"Young children demand and deserve special attention. They are the most vulnerable and their earliest experiences have the potential to positively or negatively influence them, their families and their communities in later life," says MEC for social services and poverty alleviation in the Western Cape, Kholeka Mqulwana.
"Without children, humankind ceases to exist. We must ensure that every child is given the chance of going to school; of developing his or her potential, because children will respond to us in accordance with how we nurture them."
Adds Marais: "We would like to thank Microsoft for its commitment to changing the lives of SOS children in Cape Town."
Concludes Mqulwana: "Our children should be prepared to build an even better society than ourselves."
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