Services:
The following services are provided:
The Centre offers a digital village with 36 computers all linked to the internet via a broadband connection. Dell donated 19 new computers to the Centre as well as a server. All computers are equipped with software sponsored by Microsoft that include the full Office package – Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, Publisher etc., and Encarta – a digital encyclopedia with a wealth of information and also their Student package with templates for school projects and enhanced mathematical content like a scientific calculator and more. The 19 new computers all have the latest Microsoft Windows 7 operating system and the remaining 17 computers have the Microsoft XP operating system.
MathsPro – software was donated by EvaluNet that assists children, students and even adults revise their Grade 8 – 11 mathematics. Program is also equipped with exercises to help improve your mathematical skills.
EvaluNet Biblion – an educational software also generous donated by EvaluNet. Biblion is software created by qualified educationist and meets the requirements of outcomes based education.(OBE). Children can enjoy fun, informative and relevant exercises that encourage co-operative and self-paced learning. Software deals with numeracy, literacy, life skills while higher grades deal with economic management science, math’s, English and many more.
Literacy project - Teaching children to read involves more than helping them to recognize the combinations of sounds and letters that make up words. Understanding the meaning of text—words, numbers, and images, in print or digital form—is a no less critical part of what it means to be literate today. Umjindi Resource Centre, recognizing the need for improved literacy in its own community expanded its services to include a computer based reading program called Readers are Leaders. With levels from 1 till 15, learners will be able to improve their reading skills to a level that will enable them to read at university level at a very affordable rate.
Career Guidance Centre – the newest addition to one of our many services. The career guidance Centre is a self-help program, where current and future students and employees can identify which career path will best suit them by completing a step by step, color coded personality trait test. The Centre also supplies further information about those careers as well as information of universities, Technikons, colleges and even bursaries!
Reference library section provides approximately 8000 reference books on a wide variety of topics. The encyclopedias and reference books are used for project research and general information gathering to supplement the school curriculum.
The reference library also offers a study area where students and scholars can study or do homework.
Printing and business facilities are provided at minimal cost. We do black and white and color printing and copies, faxing, ring binding and laminating. These services are proving to be very popular amongst the members of the Centre as these facilities are not readily available in their own homes or places of work.
Educational experiments are extremely popular amongst the children and even adults are often seen trying to figure out the puzzles. The play tables with crayons and building blocks provide a space where children wait before or after using our facilities and allow parents to use the Centre while not having to worry about their small children.
SETA SME DVD toolkits - informative DVDs kindly donated by Roelof van Rooyen. These DVDs provide a large variety of information to give entrepreneurs basic guidelines to make a success of their business and to fully prepare them on their new venture. DVDs such as What is BEE, Growing a small business is freely given to registered entrepreneurs while other interested parties may borrow the DVDs for free.
An indigenous reading garden. Our entrance for disabled members also passes through the garden giving them a warm and beautiful welcome.
Meeting / Training room. Used for staff and board meetings but also rented out at minimal cost to small businesses and institutions wishing to train their staff and the facility is also available for teachers giving extra classes.
The Umjindi Resource Centre is also the custodians of the Digital Doorway project. It is a basic computer literacy initiative sponsored by the CSIR and the Department of Science and Technology. It is based on the principle of minimally invasive education or unassisted learning. Underpinning the project is the idea of people’s inherent cognitive ability to teach themselves computer skills with minimal external intervention. For this to happen, computers must be easily accessible to potential learners in an environment conducive to experimentation. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will continue to play an increasingly important role in education. Unfortunately developing countries are missing out on many advantages afforded by ICT, due to the lack of facilities and teachers trained in ICT. Unsupervised learning, or Minimally Invasive Education, provides a mechanism to promote mass computer literacy in developing communities
Staff & volunteer program. Another aspect of our Centre we are very proud of is our volunteer program. Although the Centre is managed by full time employees we have a strong volunteer base from the local community who assist in running the Centre. The volunteers do not receive a salary, but in exchange for their time they are trained in various aspects of running the Centre and gain valuable work experience, while serving the community. Our volunteers often come to us with no computer literacy or work experience and leave the Centre to follow good careers. We are constantly striving to improve our volunteer program. The volunteer program is a win-win situation for the Centre and the volunteers, without their assistance it would be difficult to handle the day to day operations at the Centre.