Teso Digital Center (TDC)

TDC is designed to provide  access to information and support  to 45% of the vulnerable Youth, women and Children in Soroti  District. The women, youth and children of this  district suffer  abuses ranging from violence against women, Child marriages, human trafficking , addiction  and STIs and  the perpetrators take advantage of the victims ignorance,  poverty and corruption to evade justice while for the youth absence of correct information and access to support is the big obstacle. The following information will be availed at the center; Books of  laws and acts of Uganda, Procedures of complaints, ready forms where victims can fill and submit complaints to the concerned authorities ( a key tool for the youth to secretly seek help in issues pertaining drug addiction and STIs that they are in many cases ashamed of) Our team will station an IT volunteer to teach the community how to use the platform.

TDC aims to bridge the information gap for the Local communities in Teso to empower them to know, protect and enjoy their rights. TDC will provide information in the Local ATESO language to 40% of the Victims of abuse especially women and children. TDC will also provide information relating to youth employment, Support for addicts and treatment information for patients of STIs. The platform will provide automated support services through quick forms that the victims and whistle blowers can quickly fill and submit and the system will submit such complaints or inquiries to the concerned authorities and organization. Our Volunteer will be station at the facility to impart digital skills to the local communities so that they can learn how to use digital platforms to acquire correct information and seek solutions.

TDC is a one stop online and offline information center that will offer to 40% of the indigenous Iteso of Soroti and the surrounding areas all that they need to know in terms of the laws and acts of the country, procedures for business, migration, funding solutions, mitigation of risk and digital books that will help them embolden their knowledge. The Center will also provide the services of a trusted and confidential counselor and automated referral services where the people of soroti can secretly lodge a complaint by filling a form and submitting and the system will channel it to the right authorities. The center will use 8 computers, internet terminal and a volunteer who will teach the locals how to use the digital system to get information and help.

Soroti is located approximately 293 km out of Kampala with limited social services and a conservative culture where the women and children are looked at as properties and as a result are subject to all sorts of abuse including forced marriage, buttering, denial to own property, rape and emotional and physical abuse despite the fact that the laws of Uganda and other international charters spell out laws that protect the women and children. The women here have no access and do not know such laws exist and as such they succumb to abuse. The women also fear to report to authorities the abuses that they are going through for fear of being rebuked or even abused punitively. Teso Digital center aims to give ready access of information to this women and children and also provide automated complaint registering and channeling platform to save them from the abuses. TDC believes information is power.

For the Youth of Soroti, many are unemployed, drug addicts and patients of a number of STIs but they fear to come out as they think they will be condemned. those who have tried to seek employment outside soroti have ended up being victims of human trafficking's and slavery where they are held captive and forced to work without pay. They have no place to find accurate information regarding employment, drug addiction, STIs and Support services. TDC will offer the much needed information and automated support services where they can fill a form confidentially and submit and the system will channel their complaints to the right organizations and authorities that will offer them the support they need.

TDC will not only offer the information and automated complaint registering, submission and support services but will also offer hands-on skill training to the local communities to learn how to use digital platforms to access information and support 

TDC aims to equip 40% of the vulnerable youth, women and  children with ICT skills and information regarding to their rights and health and that the 40% will act as agents for change in the entire community.

Our problem, solution and Target population are aligned with the challenge. Our solution aims to equip across section of the population of soroti with digital skills that will enable them integrate in to the digital world  of today. We believe information is power and when the population is empowered, they able to make good informed decisions including financial ones.

Soroti is the central district of the Iteso, Our team has done a number of interviews and research to ascertain why Our fellow indigenous people continue to languish in dire poverty, we designed the tool that will offer valuable and accurate information to our people, now we need to test the tool before we can roll it to other districts of Teso

Information is power, Our solution makes it easy for the local person in soroti to know where to get what ever they want including digital loans, human rights defending, access to medical care, support and counselling and so forth with at most confidentiality

we currently serve between 100 to 200 university students from teso who study in Kampala, we wish to serve up to 1000 people in the next year from rural soroti

We user ICT clubs and the larger they grow we are able to know the skills are increasing

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My team is composed of senior and professional IT experts and communication specialists. We have recruited university students offering IT to volunteer and they will help tutor the local communities on basic IT skills and also run the facility

The digital center will have seated allotted for women, youth and those with disabilities. after a successful pilot, My team will establish more digital centers in all the 12 districts of teso sub region

We are applying to Solve to grant us $6500 to enable us meet our budget of $8000 to setup the first pilot Teso digital center in Soroti.

Currently we are looking for a grant of $6500  to allow us set the pilot center and later we would love support from organizations and  individuals who could help donate to us computers routers and monitor screens

We would like to partner with Women, children and youth rights NGOs to provide information on the rights of the vulnerable that we avail on the digital platform

We also wish to partner with organizations that can donate computers, routers and Display monitors and Inverter backups to us to enable us set more of the digital centers after the pilot.

We also would love to partner with software companies to donate to us software that we can use to deliver the information to the  community