Zimbabwe’s ICT Ministry donates to ZAOGA’s Ezekiel Guti school     

 By Wallace Mawire 

The Ministry of Information, Communications and Telecommunications (lCT), Postal and Courier Services on Tuesday,30 April,2024  pledged to donate at least 26 laptop computers to Ezekiel Guti Secondary School at Chinhanga Village in Manyame in Harare, Zimbabwe to support school children with digital skills training.

 The pledge was made by ICTs Deputy Minister,Dingumuzi Phuti at a session to train youths from the local catchment area at the school computer laboratory on digital literacy, also emphasizing cyber security skills for local school children. 

 At least 400 youths in the local area have been capacitated with the trainings.   The secondary school was established by the late Archbishop Ezekiel Guti under the ZAOGA Forward In Faith (FIF) church to empower marginalized school children with digital skills literacy.       

Deputy Minister Phuti said at the event that the school computer laboratory had 39 computer cubicles, and some of them lacked the necessary gadgets.The laptops will fill up the empty cubicles for the benefit of the children.   

The event was also part of activities lined up leading to a celebration of the legacy of the late Archbishop Apostle Ezekiel Guti, Founder of the ZAOGA FIF church.      Phuti said that his ministry has a partnership with the ministry of Education to support with ICT skills education for disadvantaged school children. 

 A Chief Director in the ICTs ministry said that the ministry took the work being done by ZAOGA church at the school in support of the community seriously, hence the establishment of a memorandum of cooperation.   

Phuti said that the collaboration between ZAOGA and his ministry at the school highlights the importance of partnerships between institutions like the church and government.     The school is empowering youths and school children from communities like Dema, Waterfalls and Southlands.         

 He added that the ICTs ministry had an e-learning strategy being rolled out, which emphasises the importance of digital skills education, especially for the youths.  Dr Eleanor Guti, wife to the late Archbishop said that the school was established some years back in a former swampy area to raise the standards of life for people in the marginalized communities.   

 "This was the late Archbishop's last project and gift to the Chinhanga community and the school comes with great value to the communities,"she said.   

 She added that the school was growing and many children in the local community will stand to benefit from it.    Dr Guti also urged the ministry of ICTs to facilitate access to computer equipment with the necessary assessories to enable children with disabilities to be digital literate.     

 She said that the school was developing into a state  of the art facility to benefit the community in the local area.Dr Guti also said that the future lay in ICTs and urged the youths to embrace them.