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The Young Men's Christian Association is bridging the digital divide for students and teachers in the Port Loyola area. It's a summer camp that they've dubbed the Technology Education Summer Program aimed at flattening the education and technology curve for marginalized students.

Cherisse Halsall popped into their open day and got to see first-hand how teachers and students are helping each other to embrace the information age, through methods that may well become the standard in the new norm for education. Here's that story.

The YMCA is coming to the end of a very unique and futuristic three-week summer camp. They've focused on bridging the technological divide students and teachers in their neighbourhood. And yesterday at their open day we spoke to the Y's executive director Clara Cuellar who says that the freedom to connect is critical to every child's success.

Clara Cuellar - YMCA, Executive Director

"The biggest gap that will happen in the education technology during this COVID is students even if they have a device it's one device and 5 children in the and then the quiet and the assistance at home. So, it is critical that a centre like this where we are visioning provides devices and the internet speed with the bandwidth they need. The excitement is to know that here we have what we call old school new school caring and loving together as a team. The youth's school has done all the learning of the moodle device and they sat down with teachers and learned a lot of educational pedagogy and then turned around and created a lot of what was useful for the teachers."

Niri Centeno is one of the young people spearheading this project. Niri is a sixth form student and alumni of the Y who suggested the use of the university platform moodle as a means of giving instruction while physically distancing too.

Niri Centeno - Computer Science Intern

"This summer specifically we're doing summer school a little bit differently because you want to enforce social distancing but at the same time that doesn't have to limit the student's ability to learn and so we came up with this online classes, you're still in the classroom but you're doing it online so that students and teachers can keep that distance away from each other and we use this learning management system called moodle where we've uploaded our various assessments. Our learning plans that the teacher is going to use for the day and their worksheets, test, quizzes, everything, are uploaded onto moodle. We hope that this would be the way they do it when they go back to school and here they are getting their practice so that they'll know just basic things about technology, how to turn on computer how to log on, how to just move around on the mouse and keyboard and things like that."

Clifton Baldwin is another of the Y's youth leaders and he's taken on a technical role as a wireman ensuring that these classrooms don't have to put up with any buffering.

Clifton Baldwin - Assistant teacher/ Wireman

"I run internet cord in the ceiling, in the attics to some of the desktops so that they can get access to the internet through cords and it's very fast. It's actually fun because when I was much younger than this we didn't even know about the internet but now that I'm helping other children and they are using kindle's and stuff it makes me happy to know that they are getting what I didn't get."

Clifton has been coming to the Y since he was very little, and eventually became a youth leader.

Last year he topped his class but when the pandemic struck, and the Y had to close its doors; Clifton was struggling to find an internet connection that would allow him to keep up with all the virtual homework he'd been assigned. Cuellar realized she couldn't allow him to be left behind and gave him the internet access he needed even while the facility was closed.

Clifton Baldwin

"Yes, I actually did because I came here although it was closed I still had the access to come and do my online classes here and I had a whole room for myself that I could just do my work and it was very good for me. But what's remarkable about this program is not only the technical skills that the children are gaining but the leaps of knowledge that the volunteer teachers have had to make to be able to deliver instruction on a web-based platform."

Bernice Castillo - Teacher, YMCA

"So now what have you learned here? Because I imagine that when you came here you didn't think you'd be teaching in this way. No, I was used to the traditional way of teaching using the chalkboard, the whiteboard right until this COVID-19 came along and we had to make a change and I think the change is for the better and also for the safety for ourselves and for the children."

Cherisse Halsall

"Did you ever think that you'd be teaching like this?"

Bernice Castillo

"I had never thought that I would have been doing it like this I never ever thought that sometime in my lifetime I would have been teaching using the computer or any other devices."

Niri Centeno has been their guiding hand. She says she was happy and surprised at their level of motivation and their willingness to learn.

Niri Centeno

"It's very relieving and it is, I feel very happy and it was something that I was pushing for and I have very high hopes in our teachers even though their older they're very motivated and willing to learn and I took my time, I developed a lot of patience and I took my time to teach them all the things I needed to learn and they were very open to learning it so for me to see them now using it and not having to oh Niri I need your help here it's very relieving and I'm very happy that they were able to do it."

The program which has benefited from many generous donors is still in need of assistance, with a lot of the equipment vital to the program being borrowed on a short-term basis, rigged together, or donated by small donors.

If you'd like to make a donation to the YMCA you can contact Clara Cuellar and her staff at 672 - 5535 or by emailing them at ccuellar@ymcabelize.org