Next Step for Ayitic: Training for Trainers in Haiti

29/07/2016

The Ayitic “Internet Development” project, an initiative aimed at strengthening Haiti’s digital capabilities, is launching its third edition, featuring significant changes that seek to increase its impact and broaden its reach in this Caribbean island, one of the most vulnerable countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The goal of the program is to create conditions that will allow the Internet to become an effective instrument for social inclusion and economic development in Haiti. This year, the program will provide training for trainers in the field of ​​information and communication technologies so that they can later share this knowledge with colleagues and other professionals, thus generating a spillover effect and increasing Ayitic’s impact.

This new edition of Ayitic, an initiative of the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean, is bringing local partners on board to help implement the plan in Haiti: Canado Technique (http://canadotechnique.org), Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haïti (http://www.esih.edu), and Transversal (http://www.transversal.ht).

Haiti has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in Latin America and the Caribbean as, according to Internet World Stats, barely 12% of its 10 million inhabitants have Internet access.

In the first two years since its creation, Ayitic has helped improve the technical capabilities of more than 200 Haitian professionals and students in the field of ICTs.

“Promoting Internet development in the region, especially in places such as Haiti where there are lower levels of penetration, is in LACNIC’s DNA. The idea is to work together with the country’s technical community so that it can be better prepared to meet the challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve greater Internet growth and the social and economic benefits this entails. The case of Haiti is a particularly sensitive one, as he country has stronger needs,” said Carolina Caeiro, Project Coordinator at LACNIC and head of AYITIC.

Courses for 2016. This year, two Ayitic activities will be held between August 22 and August 27 at the Canado Tecnique facilities in Port-au-Prince: a workshop on IPv6 deployment presented by Alejandro Acosta, instructor at LACNIC, and Patrick Junior Marcellus, a local expert; and a Makers Lab focused on 3D printing and prototype development led by Giovanni Michele Toglia. Workshop contents have been supervised by Edmundo Vitale, promoter of the WALC workshops.

Experts and professionals from various universities and learning centers will participate in both events. Selected participants and the institutions that nominated them must agree to replicate the materials offered by the program in at least two training initiatives of their own. With its new focus on training for trainers, the goal of the program is that they will be able to replicate their knowledge in formal and informal education and training spaces.