Dear friends,
Welcome to the Soacha Digital Village blog! The SDV is a project that has been launched by both Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) and Fundación Semilla & Fruto to provide youth with technology and entrepreneurship skills. This Community Technology and Learning Center (CTLC) aims to serve as a “hub” in Soacha, Colombia where young people and their families will be able to learn and share ideas of ways to improve their communities.
At YTF, we believe that technology is a powerful enabling tool that can support the type of developmental skills that the global economy demands in this 21st Century: digital literacy, problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration.
As for Fundación Semilla & Fruto, their mission is to break the cycle of poverty in the area of La Comuna Seis de Soacha, Colombia, through programs and projects that focus in education, nutrition, the environment and income generation, which transforms in life opportunities.
Working with grassroots organizations such as Fundación Semilla & Fruto, who understands what the most important needs of their community are, we are capable of introducing appropriate technology to help them solve those needs.
Who are the beneficiaries of the SDV project?
The Soacha Digital Village is addressed to youth residing in Soacha, who have been identified as one of the most vulnerable populations in Colombia. A significant portion of families who live in the area have been displaced by Colombia’s internal armed conflict in the countryside. The youth generally lack economic security and educational opportunities for an improved life, and they are at great risk of continued recruitment by guerrillas, paramilitaries and local gangs in their new settlements.
With after school programs integrating technology, computer classes to unemployed adults, job training programs and technology entrepreneurship programs including webpage design, graphic design and other work, the SDV works to empower communities and creating social and economic development.
YTF ensures that the programs are replicable, sustainable, build capacity, maximize impact and focus on the underserved.
Want to know more? Stay tuned, more content on the development of the SDV is coming soon.
Best,
The YTF team.
