Prizes and Raffle; Battle of the Sexes
The computer workshop is a time to talk to students about computer technology and the Global Village. It gives EVCO a chance to gauge the knowledge of the students so that we can compare and know how much they have learnt during our follow up workshop a year later. We get to know the students; where they live, how far they have to walk to school, what they like to do after school and what they would like to do when they grow up.
We take the opportunity to talk to the students about the world we live in and the world outside their perspective villages. We talk about global citizenship. We talk about anti-bullying, being kind to one another, staying in school, studying hard, being obedient to teachers and parents and not to forget where they come from so that they would come back to their communities to help the young and less fortunate ones when they grow up.
We have fun with keyboarding games, talk about how computers are changing our daily lives, the advantages of the Internet and the proper way to navigate, we talk about and demonstrate RACHEL and other educational software programs available on our donated computers.
Finally, we conclude with our giveaways and raffle finale. We make sure that every participating student gets something; pieces of candy and pens. We end up with three major prices which are determined by raffle in other to give each child a fair chance of winning. This includes exercise books, scientific calculator and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. For the past five years, this exciting raffle especially for the tablets has turned into the ‘battle of the sexes’ of which the girls are winning!
We have been informed by several Headmasters from our recipient schools that this ‘EVCO excitement’ lives on long after we leave the schools. Students’ attendants have greatly improved parents encourage their children to attend school after they witness the donation ceremony showing off their new computer labs. Students regardless of how far they have to walk from their villages to school, do not want to miss school especially knowing that they get to go to the computer lab to learn with computers.