17th: Arnaldo brings new technologies to Chongoene

The new Chongoene IT Centre, an entrepreneurial project conceived by our Technician Arnaldo, has been operating since the beginning of the year. This project was financed by ALG through a donation from one of our Partner Companies – Randstad. They promoted an ALG Happy Day during Christmas, last year, for promotion and fund raising. The Centre provides youngsters access to IT technical training, increasing their qualifications and employability. The IT Centre also operates as a consumables and IT services store, creating a hub of local micro commerce. It also promotes technical training for youngsters, providing them opportunities for future jobs with IT requirements or self-employment initiatives.

Arnaldo’s dream came true to benefit the community...

“I grew up in a very poor family, during my studies and in my first job I assessed my skills and decided I would like to have an IT Centre, but there was no possibility to do it on my own. After a few years ALG gave life to this dream of mine and I managed to open the Centre by the end of 2014. 

This year I took over the position of IT Centre Director, and assessing the surrounding community I realised it lacked services of this nature, and the only thing missing was… someone like me. I am very proud of being part of the community and of my country’s development. 

Up to today this centre already trained 26 adults, from a total of 32 enrolled students, including the ones currently in a course. 14 already have certificate, and some of them are already waiting to be hired. Besides the trained students, the Centre is also supporting 3 youngsters (on a monthly basis), not only financially but also training them and providing them professional experience, which will contribute to reduce the number of unemployed people registered in Mozambique. 

This centre is also an entrepreneurial experience for me. Considering my past years, and everything I have overcome, this year was the best one ever, the most successful one. It was not easy, it is never easy to make a dream like this come true, without help from your family, but with some faith we are more likely to succeed. I think that the work achieved since the opening of the Centre is very positive. During the current year, and within the context of the financial crisis, every student contributed for the improvement of this sector. It was not the expected number of enrolments but we are in the initial stage of evaluation. Next year I hope we have more training for youngsters and more productivity. My main goal is to provide youngsters IT knowledge, from a user’s perspective, in order to allow them to thrive in the labour market. 

For me 2015 is a year to remember and it will savour it for the rest of my life, for the huge effort of managing to fulfil the dream I’ve been dreaming for years.

Kanimambo! Mano Arnaldo“

ALG has been offering this festive calendar to all ALG friends since 2011. This year you can also print a high definition version for only 1£!

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