IATP Monitoring and Evaluation Report - IREX

A 37-year-old veterinarian from Imishli, Azerbaijan
Mehman Aliev created a website for his work to raise
public health awareness. With IATP guidance, Aliev
created a website on highly contagious and rare animal
diseases. “After our website went up, we received
a lot of inquires about a new strain of rabies
and the avian flu. We conducted some research on
the internet and then provided medical advice and
recommendations to the public. We couldn’t have
managed this work so efficiently without the resource
of the IATP center,” he said.
Another community-oriented initiative was spearheaded
by teacher and head of a local NGO in
Imishli Kudrat Zeinalov. He reports the IATP center
helped him prepare a grant proposal to improve the
infrastructure of his rural community. His proposal
was selected and the project will be awarded AZM
36,000 ($41,000) to renovate rural roads in the region.
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The effectiveness of IATP technical training was explored
during the IATP Trainees online survey. The
survey revealed that 100% of the surveyed IATP
training participants found the knowledge and experience
they acquired at IATP training “useful” or
“very useful” for their academic and professional
activities.
Elena Vashishina, an accomplished singer from Zhitomir,
Ukraine, was able to search for international
music competitions in Poland and Belarus in which
to compete after taking IATP internet training. As a
result, her chorus took first prize in Poland.
“Everything started from internet training,” Vashishina
noted. 19
Sofia Rusu, history teacher and head of the Methodology
Center of the Gagauzian Education Department
from Comrat, Gagauzia, Moldova, explained in
a focus group how she used IT skills to help address
social issues with her students. Rusu sent 56 of her
high school students to IREX technical training at the
IATP center in Comrat as initial preparation for a
class on domestic violence. With their new skills, the
class carried out a small project during which they
discovered two cases of domestic violence in their
school. Two girls experienced extreme pressure from
their parents to bring home the highest grades and
when they earned less than perfect grades, the girls
were severely punished for it. The classmates conducted
internet research and located information to
help educate the girls about resources available to
them that might help improve their relationship with
their parents. 20
IREX’s IATP program touches many aspects of people’s
lives. Fifty-one percent of surveyed IATP training
participants used their skills in their personal
lives, while 58% used their skills for professional development.
Thirty-eight percent stated their acquired
knowledge and skills helped them in the academic
sphere and 25% used their training in the social
sphere. Almost all agreed (99%) that ICT skills
gained through IATP training improved their connection
to people and/or other organizations.
ICT for Educational Development
In a focus group discussion, history teacher and head
of the Methodology Center of Gaugazia’s Department
of Education in Moldova, Sofia Rusu, explained
how an IATP center is regularly incorporated in history
classes of local high schools. In the autonomous
and diverse region, teachers do not merely rely on
textbooks to teach national and regional history.
With the help of free internet access at the local
IATP center, teachers asked students to research a
historical event on the internet and find competing
accounts describing the same event, learning to
evaluate source credibility in the process. As Rusu
explains, “At the IATP center, our history teachers
and their students search for information from different
perspectives of history. We look for different
sources on the Web and various historical documents.
Thus, we provide students—and even teachers—with
the opportunity to draw their own conclusions
based upon different points of view and different
sources of information. Both teachers and students
learn to do research, analyze information and
draw their own conclusions, and, in the process they
develop a deeper understanding of history and perhaps
a more informed kind of patriotism.” 21
Forty-year-old head of the Literature and Drama Department
at Vinnitsa Puppet Theatre in Ukraine,
Margarita Shapoval also spoke about the gap IATP
centers fill for educational systems that have not
been fully modernized. “We come to the IATP center,
and we see…how many people are learning computer
and internet skills. At the time I graduated
from school, the educational system was completely
different and people of my generation definitely experience
gaps in our education. IATP is filling this
gap very well. People trained at IATP not only receive
knowledge and skills, but as a result, they
then use these skills to benefit the whole of society,”
Shapoval observed. 22
18 Midline focus group discussion report, IATP users group, Imishli, Azerbaijan, April 9, 2009
19 IATP Trainees Online Survey, October7—November 27, 2008
20 Midline focus group discussion report, IATP users group, Comrat, Gagauzia, Moldova, April 7, 2009
21 Midline focus group discussion report, IATP users group, Comrat, Gagauzia, Moldova, April 7, 2009
22 Midline focus group discussion report, IATP users group, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, April 2, 2009
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