ORT SA focuses on refugees' abilities

ORT South Africa has given the 23 refugees – all aged between 18 and 30 – from Congo and Zimbabwe the chance to focus on and develop their abilities with HP GET-IT training courses. 

The Disabled Refugees Project (DRP), which had approached ORT SA for help, wrote to ORT SA National Director Yehuda Kay expressing their appreciation.

“It’s our belief that the knowledge our members acquired will assist them in boosting their self esteem, and to be self reliant. The course will help them to make use of technology in the running of their prospective businesses,” wrote Sefu Godel, founder and Director of the DRP, which operates under the banner, “I am not my disability, I am a person.” 

Adrienne Vester, Head of Skills Training at ORT SA, said the training started with basic PC and Microsoft skills before going on to the tried and tested HP GET-IT course which allows people to translate what they have learned into basic business tools relevant to a working environment.

The collaboration between ORT and HP is most advanced in Russia. There, ORT is the sole entry point for HP’s training courses and, in partnership with Project Kesher, has trained more than 15,000 women at 17 ORT-KesherNet centres across the Former Soviet Union. There, the GET-IT (Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT) programme has given way to HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (LIFE). Where GET-IT served younger people thinking about starting up a business, LIFE aims to teach business concepts and business planning to aspiring entrepreneurs and to teach technology in a more advanced, up-to-date way.

Do you want to know more about ORT South Africa? http://www.ortsa.org.za/