Contramaestre Undertakes Tics Literacy

Workers of Young Clubs of Computation and Electronics carry out a technological literacy in Los Negros, Popular Council of the municipality Contramaestre, to train its inhabitants in the use of the new technologies of the information (Tics).

The technological literacy extends to rural and silent areas throughout the province of Santiago de Cuba. Each inhabitant welcomes with enthusiasm the possibility of knowing how to use and exploit the different means of Tics.

Elizabeth Mustelier Gardy, deputy director of the Young Club of Computer and Electronics in Santiago de Cuba said that “the campaign consists in providing all the population with the necessary tools to create the skills they need to make a profitable use of the means available to them.

“Santiago de Cuba was the pilot city where the campaign began. An event was held there with the attendance of the 50,000 people who graduated, and now the campaign is being extended throughout the province,” added Mustelier Gardy.

The campaign will reach the farthest parts of the province, including zones of silence like La Magdalena in Guamá municipality (on the southeast coast) and Chile in San Luis municipality (central zone of eastern Cuba). All activities related to Tics are intended, in addition, to greet the 60th Anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, to be celebrated on January 1.

The exchange in the Popular Council of Los Negros reached workers in the pharmacy, the tobacco shop, the depulper, the hairdresser and educational centers. Dozens of homes also were visited, including the intricate zone of La Pintadilla.

The locals expressed gratitude for the lessons they were taught:

“We have learned things we never imagined. Thanks to the staff, I learned how to turn on a computer and use some applications such as creating folders and saving files…”.
“I have a cell phone but I just called; I already know how to use other useful applications, such as recording and playing videos, audio, taking photos, passing data from one phone to another …”

“Since we can’t attend computer clubs from these hills because of the distance, it’s good to have this opportunity to learn in the very same house.”
Mustelier Gardy says that it is urgent to bring this campaign to all the people who need it for the personal and social benefit it represents. Cuba has all the conditions to make its population literate and keep it updated on what is happening in the world of Tics.

In Cuba, the government developed the Literacy Campaign that taught all illiterate Cubans how to read and write, then with Chinese lamps and the Knowledge Primer, today the technological campaign is accomplished with tablets in hand, but both campaigns coincide have some aspects in common: going uphill facing the mud and sun typical in these days.

Written by Radio Grito de Baire