Mtandao Afrika 2008 Open

A few weeks ago, the incredible Mtandao Afrika challenge/contest for 2008 has been opened for African students and coaches to participate. I am really glad that the organisers and sponsors have again provided a chance to several African students and teachers to be apart of this great contest where I personally benefited and gained a lot of skills which I use in my day-to-day life.

Last year, the team which I coached with a colleague in Egypt made it to the finals and we (the team) were crowned a Platinum Award in the Science and Mathematics category and the overall Star Award for the whole year. Personally, I have participated in Mtandao Afrika for two consecutive times both as a student and then as a coach. I have been honoured that all these times, I have been one of the finalists and my teams have been crowned the best award in the categories where the websites have been submitted to.

For those who may not know,

Mtandao Afrika (MAf) Internet Challenge is a website development contest for African youth. The contest is focusing on the creation of educational web sites with African content and promotes the use of African local languages. The contest also envisions raising cultural awareness of the participants by encouraging them to form diverse teams from the entire continent. The participants are offered the unique chance of crossing geographical and cultural barriers to get together and form teams where they acquire life time skills of project and time management, ICT skills and research skills while working on entries.

The good news is that if you missed out when you were still in high or secondary school and now at university, this year round, a new category was added. The University students category offers the students who were part of the competition in previous years and are familiar with the rules and benefits of this great program to have the opportunity to build on their skills and also add value to the competition through their increasing technical knowledge.

So in case you are student or teacher out there, I really encourage to take part. Please dont miss this incredibly opportunity of getting real-life skills which you will be able to use even after your school life. Believe it or not! I am a testimony to Mtandao Afrika. In case you’ve made up your mind, you can contact me and also remember the important dates of the 2008 challenge below:

• Deadline for teams registeration: March 15th 2008
• Deadline for uploading the entries: May 1st 2008
• Results announcement: June 1st 2008
• Youth camp and awards ceremony: August 2008