TIGblogs - Moataz

Local NGO Ofok Al - Tanmia aims to develop youth potential in Egypt
Automatically translated into English thanks to WorldLingo
“Sometimes you need large amounts of money to make an impact on a local community - but sometimes you only need effort and belief. That is what happened when three brothers decided to act on their desire to impact education in Egypt "

Shaarawy, Waleed and Moataz Shaarawy first opened a small “IT Club or telecenter” they called the “Digital Club” in an apartment in Zamalek and began teaching children and adults how to use the internet. The interest in this project encouraged them to expand their efforts.

The product of their efforts is Ofok Al - Tanmia, which means “development horizons,” a local NGO dedicated to helping people develop their potential through ICT education. The group has come a long way in the short two and half years that it has been operating, earning recognition from its partner Cisco Networking Academies.

ICT Training
The El Baky brothers that founded Ofok decided to use ICT education and training as the avenue to empower youth and provide them with opportunities.

In October 2006 the group took its first big step towards reaching this goal by applying to be trained and certified as an IT Essential Cisco Networking Local Academy.

Since achieving certification, Ofok has established an impressive list of accomplishments. It enrolled around 1,500 students in the last two years, 40% of them female.

Less than a year ago, Ofok also became a CCNA Regional Cisco Networking Academy. The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is a degree that is a step up from the courses that Ofok previously provided. Becoming a regional academy also enabled the organization to train instructors of designated “local” academies.

It was these efforts that earned Ofok the 2007 Local Academy Award of the Year from Cisco.

This year Ofok again increased its available offerings for students by joining the Sun Academic Initiative Program, in order to give courses in technology by Sun Microsystems.

Although the Cisco and Sun courses can be taken online, Ofok provides certified instructors. These instructors help students learn to use the interface and guide them through lessons.

“This culture of taking courses online is not found in Egypt yet,” said Shaarawy Shaarawy, one of the founders and chairman of Ofok. “We tried to offer courses strictly online but did not find this to be successful. ”

Ofok additionally helped launch two other local academies currently under its management.

All this education and training is ultimately geared towards helping people find jobs and careers in the ICT industry. The organization has helped about 60% of its graduates find employment.

“They' re [multi - national companies] trying to find people and if they don' t find [employees], they may import their workforce from outside Egypt,” said Heba El Hossary, assistant chairman at Ofok. “We' re trying to find common ground between what they need and what is provided. ”

Community Development
Ofok has not limited its ambitions to providing education and training for paying customers. The organization, which is self - funded, actively looks for ways to subsidize or fund courses for those that could not otherwise afford them.

Through a push by the Ministry of Education to promote increased ICT education, Ofok has committed to provide 10,000 ICT scholarships to students that will be selected throughout Egypt. These students will be chosen from an initial pool of 20,000 primary school children and will be educated in Cisco' s IT Essentials 1 course.

“We' re trying to build on the revolution of technologies to help people build themselves,” said Sharawy.

Ofok is also involved in a variety of other initiatives. The Ofok Ambassador program recruits young people who are passionate about promoting youth ICT education and offers them training to create role models for others. These ambassadors are given the mission of inspiring others their own age to work and receive training in the ICT industry.

“We' re trying to recruit people who would be interested in the same vision of Ofok to help them build their skills and help them use their skills to find good jobs,” said Elhossary.

The organization also offered courses aimed at children aged 9 - 14 and offered female - only courses to try and encourage more women to learn technology.

“I think our vision [is] to empower the youth to use ICT tools,” said one of the founding brothers, Ofok chief information officer Moataz Shaarawy.

Success Stories
Part of Ofok' s mission is to actively engage its students by investing in people in whom they see potential. Ofok does not want to simply passively transmit information to its students, but help them understand how to use their acquired knowledge by helping them seek and obtain jobs and careers.

Mohamed Abd Allah Farid used to be the manager of a Pizza Hut in Cairo and decided that he wanted to change his career, develop his potential and earn a higher salary. Two years later he is an instructor at Ofok.

“I heard about Ofok a long time ago from a friend from university,” he said. “He told me that they were working on a project to offer services to people who want an ICT career. I was interested in the ICT industry because it' s a good career. ”

He said that Ofok gave him a career and showed him that learning is an ongoing process.

“I have learned that learning doesn' t stop at one stage in life or phase,” Farid said. “I am constantly learning and accumulating knowledge. Through Ofok I have also contributed to teaching others and motivating students to seek their own careers and build their own future. “

Medhat Farouk Ebrahim is also an instructor and training manager at Ofok. He previously taught technology courses at other institutions, but believes that by working at Ofok he is helping fulfill social goals as well as his own personal career objectives.

“I prefer to work with Ofok to help develop the human potential in Egypt and change the teaching process,” he said.

“In Ofok we can teach… students in another way and the education process differently. We help students focus not only on the education process but on their individual skills. ”

Ofok boasts of other individual successes, such as having the youngest IT Essentials 1 (a course through the Cisco Networking Academy) graduate in Cisco' s history thus far.

The people at Ofok have certainly shown that much can be achieved by people who have a vision and strong desire to help their community. In their few short years of existence, they have already contributed much to the development of ICT education in Egypt, and are constantly seeking new avenues for human development.