(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The elderly will soon benefit from information and communication technologies (ICT) with the help of their children and younger relatives who will teach them how to use these technologies, under Wasla - an intergenerational ICT learning programme that has been launched by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR).
Wasla, which translates as 'link' in Arabic, is wrapped into a larger Digital Inclusion Strategy launched last May by ictQATAR. This strategy wants to ensure that all segments of the society in Qatar have access to and can use and benefit from ICTs.
Qatar is home to around 45,000 people aged 60 and above and nearly 55,000 students aged 15 to 18, according to the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics. The elderly might have long been digitally isolated due to lack of knowledge about using ICT.
In Wasla, a volunteer programme, ictQATAR backed by programme partners seek to bridge the digital generation gap by encouraging those youth, through programme partners, to teach their older parents to use and perceive ICT in order for them to be part of the digital society in Qatar. By doing so, Wasla will not only help include the elderly into the digital society by raising their ICT awareness, but also contribute to stronger family relationships.
"Wasla is a part of ictQATAR's plans to cultivate digital literacy for all people in Qatar in alignment with government steps toward building a knowledge-based society as detailed in the Qatar National Vision 2030," Reem Al Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development, ictQATAR, said in a speech at the launch event held at the InterContinental Doha the
City Hotel. Addressing officials from the Supreme Education Council (SEC), QF, Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada), Unesco and the Qatar Foundation for Elderly People Care (IHSAN), Al Mansoori said, "This effort will remain incomplete unless fully backed and boosted by all stakeholders whose expertise will be
of great value to the programme."
Fawzia Al Khater, Director of the SEC Education Institute, said, "Literacy no longer means being able to only read and write if you are still digitally illiterate."
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