MiDO Foundation develops confident generation of
The MiDO Foundation launched an exciting programme called Cyber Power Girls with the objective to develop responsible, confident and resilient digital citizens who can navigate the online world safely and responsibly.
This ten-week programme, launched in Women’s Month, is exclusively reserved for female learners between the ages of sixteen to twenty years. The MiDO Foundation is recruiting and enrolling learners from schools in the Boland, Winelands and Helderberg areas and the anticipated 150 to 180 participants will be onboarded and ready to start the course by the end of August 2024.
“This programme not only creates valuable and essential technical skills to equip vulnerable girls to navigate the online world safely, it also creates an opportunity for girls who want to build a career and seek employment in the ICT sector”, says Michelle Swartland, Programme Co-ordinator for the Cyber Power Girls Programme.
The detrimental effect of cyber bullying demands effective solutions to equip girls with the much-needed skills to navigate cyber space and protect themselves from possible harm.
“We identified vulnerable girls in under-resourced communities as a huge risk, given the increasing cases of cyberbullying. Our approach to reduce this risk is an ecosystem-approach where we place the problem in the middle and invite collaborators and partners to help solve the problem”, says Dale Simons, CEO of the MiDO Foundation. These partners include the Commonwealth Secretariat – Africa Cyber Fellowship Programme, participating schools in the Western Cape’s Boland, Winelands and Helderberg areas, the Western Cape Education Department, ROAR, KnowBe4 and MiDO Academy, who will be responsible for implementing the training programme.