SWOPNET MARA CHAPTER LAUNCHED
The government in Mara region has promised to support SWOPnet Mara Chapter so as to make it achieve its goals.
The promise was made on 18 September 2006, by Chrisant Rubunga, Regional Administrative Secretary, for Mara region when he was officially launching the SWOPnet Mara Chapter.
He praised the initiative of SWOPnet Mwanza Chapter to conduct the ICT Evangelical Workshop in Mara, which has eventually ushered in Swopnet Mara Chapter.
Mwanza Chapter Secretary, Joseph Msaki, introducing the activities of the chapter to the participants.
He urged ICT stakeholders to work very hard in supporting the government's development efforts in the spirit of private and public partnership .He called upon the stakeholders to help the government of Mara region in the preparation of the investor's forum to be held in October this year. Responding to that call, SWOPnet Mwanza chapter Chair Mr Karsan promised to take the responsibility of constructing and hosting Mara region website.
5 presentations were made, which raised the awareness of the participants to brainstorm on what should be done, to establish a chapter that will be the hub of ICT development and application in the region.
The Chair of SWOPnet Mwanza Chapter, Abubakar Karsan, stressing a point when he was presenting one of his paper.
An introduction of SWOPnet on SWOPnet Mwanza Chapter was done by Joseph Msaki, who gave a lengthy discussion on what the chapter is doing to promote the application of ICT in accelerating development. To make his presentation more interesting and interactive, he used ICT tools such as PowerPoint and multi media projector.
A brief introduction of what is ICT was done by Abubakar Karsan, who explained that ICT was dealing with the process of capturing, processing, storing, and transmitting information.
Journalists listening attentively to the workshop proceedings.
In solidifying the role of ICT to development, Karsan presented a paper on Realization of MKUKUTA's objectives through ICT. He stressed that information and communication technology had an important role to play to support the Poverty Monitoring Master Plan (PMMP) which is fully entrenched in MKUKUTA.
A section of the participants at the workshop.
In his last presentation entitled, the role of knowledge sharing networks in accelerating development, Karsan said that knowledge sharing networks could play a pivotal role in the process of development by disseminating ideas, experiences and local contents.
The Computer Engineer of Diocese of Mara Vocation Training Centre, Theobald Thadeo, (with spectacles) making a point to a participant of the workshop who visited the centre.
After that the participants were allowed to comment and most of them agreed to form the SWOPnet Mara Chapter. An election was conducted and the following people were elected: Benedict Chacha was elected as a chapter's chair whike Emmanuel Bwimbo was chosen to be the Secretary.
The following were elected as members of the steering committee: Ms Sharifa Kabyemela, Ms Anna Gikaro, Mr Philbert Nyangahoni, Theobald Tadeo and Mr Mwita Matwe.
