Hai Ti! wins World Summit Youth Award

SchoolNet Namibia has once again been awarded for the work it is doing to bring Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) closer to the people. Hai Ti!, the comic series produced by SchoolNet, Strika and OpenLab International, was awarded 3rd place in the Community Engagement Category of the 2005 World Summit Youth Awards (WSYA) scheduled to take place at the UN World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia in mid-November.

Hai Ti! tells the story of how a young schoolgirl and a determined teacher rise up against technology monopolists, apathy and ignorance by empowering themselves through SchoolNet and its Free and Open Source Software, OpenLab, and the Internet.

SchoolNet’s Hai Ti! project stood out among more than 300 international entries, convincing the international judges that educating adults and learners about the advantages of ICTs through comics is both innovative and successful. In announcing the winners of the prestigious awards, the WSYA judges stated that Hai Ti! is “truly among the world’s best in youth-led e-content and creativity”.

“ The challenge with Hai Ti! is to constantly engage a broad range of community members; teachers, learners, principals, parents and community stakeholders, and get them excited about what SchoolNet makes possible by providing access to computers and the Internet,” says Bruce Legg, Strika’s creative writer. “Hai Ti! has been exceptionally well received, and this award is strong evidence that comics, put together by young, creative collaborators, are a great way of communicating with people across age and culture,” he added.

SchoolNet Namibia is proud of this latest achievement, and as Aune, one of the Hai Ti! characters based on a real-life SchoolNet technician, says: “I hope that more organisations like SchoolNet in Africa get the public and private sectors involved in ICTs for all!” The three-day UN World Summit brings together international leaders and organisations from public, private and civil society sectors to discuss how ICTs could be better applied to improve the human condition through narrowing the information gap between the world’s rich and poor.

The lead organiser of the event is the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The first phase of the WSIS took place in Switzerland in December 2003, where delegates from 175 countries pledged support for the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. More than 11 000 participants attended the first phase, and a similar number of delegates are expected at WSIS in Tunisia.

Ebben-esser Hatuilkulipi, SchoolNet’s web administrator, will be attending the WSYA Gala event to receive the Award for Hai Ti! She will be one of a eight-member SchoolNet Namibia delegation attending WSIS. SchoolNet Namibia will have an exhibition stand at the ICT 4 ALL Platform, an international Expo of best practices in ICT development, running parallel to the WSIS summit.

View the comic series online at: www.schoolnet.na/haiti, and find out more about the World Summit Youth Awards at: www.youthaward.org

Filed by Frederico Links, Media Institute, Polytechnic of Namibia