Girls and Technology, Teenage Suicide, MobileActive08...

In four days SANGONeT and MobileActive will host MobileActive08, the largest international civil society event to date, focusing on the use and application of mobile technology in support of social action. The over 300 participants at the event will assess the current state of knowledge in the use and effectiveness of mobile technology to advance social action, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.

The two articles we publish in this week’s edition of NGO Pulse both raise concerns around technology – one in terms of girls’ exclusion and the other about the potentially damaging consequences of unsupervised use by young people.

Faith Nkomo, Girls’Net project manager at Women’sNet writes: “Given the position of the girl child in societies across the world, how do we ensure that girls and young women acquire and inherit a world in which they are equal citizens, have the right to speak and be heard, and are able to participate meaningfully in all aspects of their development? Specifically, how do we ensure that the information and communication technologies are inserted into girls’ heritage?” 

 “We must debunk the myths around the masculine nature of technology use and challenge commonly held attitudes to girls and technology”, she says. Click here to read the full article.

Writing about the increase in the number of teenage suicides in South Africa, Alda Smit, a clinical specialist at Lifeline Ekurhuleni, says “…the pre-occupation with technology does have drawbacks as it does not always leave space for the development and exercise of other life skills. Teenagers could be technologically advanced and display a lot of knowledge obtained from the internet, but a lack of communication skills could leave them lonely and isolated.”

Smit outlines several factors that put young people at risk of suicide and says that efforts to support the emotional wellness of youth must be intensified. Click here to read the full article.

The article by Christo van Rheede “The Literacy Crisis” we published last week, generated much discussion amongst readers. Andrew Miller, CEO of Project Literacy wrote: “As CEO of a large ABET service provider I must take issue with some of the points raised by Christo van der Rheede in his article ‘The Literacy Crisis’... Sadly it is often the client and often, in our case, state departments (!) who refuse the mother tongue first option.” Click here to read his full response.

On a different point, we are looking forward to launching the new SANGONeT NGO Portal - NGO Pulse - next week. Be sure to log onto the SANGONeT website next week to view the portal and stay updated with what is happening at MobileActive08.

As usual we invite your comments and suggestions.

- Janine Moolman, editor@sangonet.org.za