The organization was established to promote and facilitate an IT-education approach to empower marginalized groups economically; the project is designed with first generation entrepreneurs as the primary target. 1 First of all to ''Demystify'' the computer by stripping it of the awe created round it due simply to the fact that not very many of them can be seen in areas outside the urban and peri-urban zone of the country; it seeks to create an opportunity for children from less endowed backgrounds the opportunity to have access to IT facilities; the idea is to dispel the ''fear'' that children will ''damage'' computers when they are given unfettered access to them. 2 To assist the Youth (especial women and Physically Challenged individuals) in the surrounding communities to achieve accelerated economic empowerment using IT skills. 3 To stave off the rising incidence of unemployment among the youth by equipping them with skills in Information Technology thereby making them more employable. 4 Teach data management and processing as well as information sharing, using tools such as the Internet; demonstrating the use of such tools by students to access information needed for academic work and to inform day to day business planning and decision making by entrepreneurs (however small their businesses may be). 5 To teach computer hardware and networking to interested individuals. 6 To offer free tuition to marginalized groups such as the physically challenged, People Living With HIV Aids (PLWHA) and people who are identified to be too poor to afford the concessionary rates that are charged to keep the organization running.
Description
Index Computer Services is a Non-governmental Organization established in October 2000 as an organization engaged in the promotion entrepreneurship through the education of mainly first generation entrepreneurs in the area of Information Technology (IT) in the Hohoe District of the Volta Region in Ghana, West Africa. The organization is a brainchild of the current Executive Director, who operated it as a sole proprietor with just three computers and a small office accommodation using start up capital from personal sources and a loan secured from a philanthropist who shared the aims and objectives for establishing Index Computer Services. The Manager (sole proprietor) of the organization took the business through a gradual process of expansion against the backdrop of the large number of people who expressed interest in its services due mainly to the quality of service provided and the concessionary rates at which these services were offered; this moderated rate of expansion was employed in consonance with the necessity to ensure that managerial capacity be improved to handle expansions in the organization to ensure efficient services and management. The organization has expanded in terms of manpower with new partners with relevant skills and expertise who share the goals and objectives of the project.
