Office of the Regulator
Samoa, 2016, April 28
Samoa as a member of ITU is part of this celebration and on Thursday 28th April 2016 joined with the other ITU member states in celebrating the International Girls in ICT Day. Girls and young women have the potential not only to become ICT users, but also to become ICT professionals and creators. To celebrate this Day, the Office of the Regulator (OOTR) in collaboration with its stakeholders and sponsors facilitated a one day workshop program which included a Poster competition, text competition, Impromptu Speech Competition and Quiz Competition on ICT related topics. Prizes for the various activities have been kindly donated by local ICT companies and the business community including Comptech, Samoa Stationery and Books, Bank of the South Pacific, Island Rock, TV1, NetVo, Bluesky, Digicel, CSL, Business Systems Limited and TV3. Prizes include tablets, smart phones, printers, laptops, gift vouchers, internet access cards, cash and internships. Activities target young girls at Year 12 and Year 13 and the expectation is that this will boost their desire to consider ICT as their future career.
The keynote address of the Girls in ICT Day was delivered by Susuga Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, Associate Minister for Communication and Information Technology. Afioga Lealailepule is the former CEO of the Airport Authority and a former Student of Samoa College who has a personal passion about ICT.
The workshop featured a presentation by Gisa Fuatai Purcell, a Samoan female who head the LSE Division of the ITU-D in Geneva. It also featured presentations from various ICT companies and other OOTR partners on various ICT projects they are currently use in order for them to explain to the girls first hand work at their respective companies. Participants of the day included girls from colleges around the Country. The Poster competition was extended to all respective Colleges in both Upolu and Savaii. Around 120 girls from different schools atended. The proposal for next year is to extend to a wider scope if funds permitted. The aim is to spread the word to the future women of tomorrow; providing information and exposing them to the potential of ICTs so that they would be better equipped to serve the ICT sector in Samoa.
