Microsoft congratulates the following Unlimited Potential (UP) grant recipients. We are proud to support their work.
Regional
Pan-African
Mtandao Africa (MAf)
This project will raise the technical capacity and skills of youth across 20 African countries, mainly targeting youngsters aged 12-19 to enable them to participate in the knowledge society by staying abreast of the latest IT tools. MAf as a program promotes communication skills, collaboration and team work among students to allow them to reach out and compete with their peers in the global arena through the effective use of ICT. The program will be promoted mainly through the Ministries of education (ministries of ICT, ministries of youth) in respective African countries to ensure the outreach, but will also be promoted through local partners, previous participants and the program champions.
Bahrain
Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises' Creativity
Bahrain has taken significant steps toward labor market reform, which is essential to ensure that the human capital of the country is developed, that employment is made more attractive for localization, and that business performances can improve. With support from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, this project will work to eliminate labor market distortions so that education and economic reforms are more effective and will stimulate the creation of jobs in the private sector, especially in the medium- and high-wage job segments. The project will also help Bahrainis improve their skills by providing education and training to help them better meet the demands of the job market. The educational part of the project will include training in IT skills so that Bahrainis can learn to use the latest technologies and enhance their productivity.
NGO Empowerment in Bahrain
Working with a targeted group of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and community centers, and with support from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) grant, this project strives to create IT awareness and a skilled work force that can be quickly deployed into the network of NGOs to enhance productivity. By providing skills training to NGOs and the civil society sector, the project sets up NGOs to play a significant role in social development and to prepare Bahraini citizens for the workplace, thus creating new opportunities to accelerate economic development. Trainers in this program will be trained by the Almoyyed Institute of Technology (AIT), which will be adopting the UP curriculum. The Bahrain Information Technology Society will follow up with its graduates annually and will introduce program graduates to various people in the Bahraini job market, helping to increase their chances of employability.
Egypt
Youth and Small and Micro Enterprise Empowerment
This three-year initiative aims to further build the capacity of young people who are recent graduates, with a special emphasis on women, to enhance their opportunities to enter the increasingly demanding job market or establish their own small business or enterprise. With the support of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, the program will also aid struggling or would-be small businesses, helping them to become self-sustaining and profitable. This assistance will be provided through training in business and IT skills, including fundamental, vocational, and business training related to running a small business or enterprise.
NGO Academy
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a central role in reaching populations in remote areas of Egypt and aid in alleviating problems of poverty, gender bias, human rights, and other issues. For this project, the NGO Academy will work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and use a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant to equip NGOs with the skills they need. The Academy will offer an intensive capacity-building program to further enhance skills in IT, proposal writing, human and resource management, project management, and other areas to help improve the efficiency and scale of their operations. Further, a portal will be created to function as a support system and enable NGOs to upgrade their skills and gain more information. This three-year initiative is run in partnership with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which will commence an NGO Accreditation Program to further endorse NGOs.
Ethiopia
Alchemy World
Alchemy World works to enhance IT services in Ethiopia to help alleviate poverty. The project, with support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, will develop business training to help establish small and medium-scale businesses. It will also promote the development of new initiatives, such as life-straw business or solar technologies, and will improve access to knowledge and problem-solving solutions by using technology. The project will help underserved populations, including farmers, disadvantaged youth, and women.
Israel
Promoting Women to Employment
This project provides unemployed women an opportunity to explore career changes and provides access to tools that can improve their employment status. The project, with support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, will include training in IT skills, relevant work-force soft skills such as résumé writing, and online job searching. It will also offer personal empowerment workshops. Microsoft Israel has partnered with the Israeli Employment Service, Wizo, and Tapuha to bring this program and these training opportunities to the women of Israel.
UP National Program - Promoting Children & Youth
The goal of this program is to provide underserved youth in Israel with training in the IT skills that they need to compete in today's knowledge society. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support the program as it reaches out to underserved youth between the ages of 8 and 25 by partnering with nongovernmental organizations and the formal education system under MOE.
House of Windows
The House of Windows project, with support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, will create opportunities for people with disabilities to use existing community centers with computer labs by providing accessibility features. Through the project's network, 16 community technology centers (CTCs) will provide free accessible and assistive technology resources for groups with disabilities. The CTCs will also offer special courses, workshops, training, and support.
Jordan
ICTs for Youth Employment with INJAZ
INJAZ's mission is to inspire and prepare Jordanian youth to enter the market as qualified employees or entrepreneurs. INJAZ aims to match the educational output of schools, colleges, and universities with the requirements of the job market. The organization works to enhance entrepreneurship, business, and leadership skills for students, and then links them to the job market by using various job placement initiatives. ICTs for Youth Employment aims to train college students in ICT skills by using the Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum and on soft skills by using the Success Skills curriculum.
NetCorps Jordan
The "Promoting Entrepreneurship" component of NetCorps Jordan aims to strengthen the capacity of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) by focusing on the services and manufacturing sectors in the governorates of Zarqa, Irbid, and Balqa and introducing workers in these areas to new technologies, business practices, and improved sales and marketing management skills. Through this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, NetCorps will recruit youth who will be placed in four knowledge stations to deliver training to project beneficiaries. Additionally, these program participants will assist in the implementation of small ICT-related projects during the project incubation phase.
Kenya
Strathmore Educational Trust
In collaboration with Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communication and with support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP), a Computer Garage will be set up to provide training in basic computer assembly and maintenance for youth in outlying districts of Kenya. In this second phase of the project, the goal is to increase the number of people trained and to collaborate with similar youth organizations to provide training in entrepreneurial skills and ICT. Also, a number of students will be selected to start a Business Incubator to develop software, outsource jobs, and provide business advisory services to those trained in UP courses and those who will be trained in computer programming.
Reaching the Unreached
Reaching the Unreached is a community-based capacity-building initiative that, with a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, trains women to work in their communities, thus contributing to improved social and economic livelihoods for their families. These women go on to help to train other women in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT). The program is designed to enable women in Kenya to apply ICT-enabled entrepreneurship skills and training to help generate employment and community development opportunities.
Ugunja Community Resource Center
Purpose of the project is to enhance the livelihoods members through ICT training and dissemination. Some of the objectives are improving health standards, business opportunities, agricultural technologies, and social networks. The project is also promoting access to information, encouraging documentation and sharing of indigenous knowledge, as well as facilitating communication between community members and organizations.
Liberia
Liberia Community Technology Learning Centre (CTLC)
This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant to the Liberia CTLC provides capacity-building support in ICT and access to technology. The center will partner with 10 centers around the country to delivery this support and to provide access to technology and training.
Mauritius
Community Empowerment Programme for Mauritius
The purpose of this project is to empower the citizens of Mauritius with the vision of building an information society that will enable the creation and sharing of information and knowledge for community development. The national project will work to provide access to ICT resources and to develop a community Web portal, which may help to alleviate poverty within the community. In addition to Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the partners for this project include the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, ICT Authority, Mauritius Council of Social Services, Municipal Councils, District Councils, Mauritius Post Ltd., UNESCO, and SICOM.
Morocco
Integration and Empowerment of Disabled People
With a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, this project will provide basic IT skills training to people with disabilities in Morocco. It will also provide training for the people who will deliver these training sessions. The project will help people with disabilities gain the basic IT literacy required for the workplace, and at the same time it will enhance the IT skills of the training staff. Additionally, a portal will be designed to provide a consolidated source of information to help this population access resources and information.
Nigeria
Community Resource IT Training: Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Center
With support from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, this program will help develop IT skills for community members in underserved communities within the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Specifically, the program will assist people with physical challenges and visual impairments in Abuja, market women in Abeokuta, Muslim women in Purdar in Bauchi, fishermen and fisherwomen in Calabar, automobile spare-parts dealers in Enugu, and pottery makers in Kaduna. The center will also partner with other centers that are in the different geopolitical zones.
Fantsuam Foundation
This project will enhance the capacity of the Fantsuam community-based Knowledge Resource Centre to help expand and provide enhanced livelihoods for its community members. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support programs at the center that benefit women and youth, as well as education and health institutions in the Kafanchan area. The Fantsuam Foundation provides microfinance assistance in 10 chiefdoms of Kaduna State, and with this assistance the local population will have access to affordable and accessible community-based information sources, including announcements, open access educational resources, local government information, school–related information, and public health services.
Saudi Arabia
Microsoft Unlimited Potential
The King of Saudi Arabia allocated funds for an e-government project that will enable all citizens to conduct their daily government operations online. As a result, citizens and community members need training in basic IT skills so that they can access and effectively use these online resources. With this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, this project will spread IT literacy to people throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Trainers will work with nongovernmental organizations and charities to help citizens improve their technology skills through training sessions conducted at community technology centers.
SANGONeT
SANGONeT is a three-phase project now it its second phase. With the support of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) grant, 10 of the best trainers from a pool of telecenter managers will be selected to become accredited trainers, assessors, or moderators to provide training in the network of telecenters. To date, 50 telecenter managers have become subject matter experts on the UP curriculum, and at the end of this project, telecenters will be certified as training centers. These training centers will issue certificates that will help increase the number of people coming to the centers and will help the centers become self sufficient. These telecenter training centers will provide a high standard of training for the Microsoft Digital Villages and the USA telecenters. They will also ensure that students trained receive credits toward a National Diploma on End User Computing that is endorsed by SAQUA.
QASA Digital Villages
QASA is a nonprofit organization established to promote independence for people with disabilities. QASA's activities include lobbying and advocacy, promoting economic empowerment for people with disabilities, providing support for entrepreneurs with disabilities, and providing skills development for people with disabilities. QASA also researches and publishes information on topics relevant to people with disabilities and helps connect people living with disabilities with independent living facilities for quadriplegics and paraplegics across South Africa. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support QASA's ongoing activities.
Preparing Youth for Participation in the Global Economy
The purpose of this project is to empower young people through IT and entrepreneurial skills training. The project will provide IT skills training to volunteer trainers, who will then be deployed at telecenters to gain work experience. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help enhance an existing entrepreneurial skills training program with an added IT usage component. Over three years, the program will train young people in entrepreneurship and IT skills and will provide project volunteers with IT skills training. Partners in this effort include SAGDA, Umsobomvy Youth Fund, and Microsoft.
Accelerating Digital Inclusion in Rural Western Cape
A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support the Accelerating Digital Inclusion in Rural Western Cape project as it seeks to empower impoverished communities by providing community development, project management, and administrative skills to community forums. These forums then help ensure that IT is used to enrich communities.
Tanzania
Affordable Computers & Technology in Tanzania (ACTT)
This center uses ICT training to sustain its programs and spread the benefits to the local population of vulnerable children and young people. With this Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, 13 community technology centers (CTCs) will be established. These CTCs will provide training in IT skills and knowledge to children and young people to help reduce their vulnerability and provide them with social inclusion in their communities.
ICT Training for Promotion of Youth Employment and Income Generation
With support from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, this project will train unemployed and underserved youth in ICT skills to enhance their opportunities for employment and income generation. The geographic focus will be the Arusha and Songea areas of Tanzania. Training will be focused on ICT skills but will also include entrepreneurial coaching, career development mentoring, and job placement assistance. Program participants will also be able to expand their knowledge about computers and technology by enrolling in online courses and training sessions at other institutions.
Turkey
Empowerment of Youth for the e-Transformation of Turkey
The Empowerment of Youth project, with the support of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, works to support youth from underserved areas in Turkey by providing ICT skills training and access to e-government services that will help them participate in the global economy. A team of peer educators who are trained in IT skills will provide local and regional training as part of this program.
Employment for the Disabled
This project, in partnership with the Turkish Informatics Foundation and local municipalities and with support from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, strives to empower people with disabilities in Turkey by helping them gain basic ICT skills that can be used for both employment and integration into social and economic systems. The main objective of the Employment for the Disabled project is to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities by providing them with training in the basic IT skills and literacy requirements needed in the workplace.
Empowering NGOs with IT
The Empowering NGOs with IT project is working to help build capacity in Turkish nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and to provide training in basic ICT skills so that these organization can achieve the vision and objectives of economic and social development. With the support of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, the project will be implemented in partnership with the Civil Society Development Center, which helps to engage NGOs that serve women, children, people with disabilities, and environmental, culture, and arts organizations. The Civil Society Development Center has a goal of reaching NGO representatives from 81 administrative provinces through these training activities.
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