Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- “Days of Virtue" by the IT Volunteers Service of the UNDP “Assisting the Government of Uzbekistan in the formulation and implementation of ICT for development policy” (ICTP) project held from 23 August to 27 August 2010 in the Tashkent city. Within this program volunteers organized events such as seminars, master classes and trainings in several public organizations. The purpose of the program was to help people with special needs as well as the youth to improve their knowledge of ICT, provide practical skills on assembling computers, replacing broken parts and customizing computers settings.

The first event tool place in “Millennium”, the youth social and legal rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, where a group of volunteer activists of the ICTP project has carried out a seminar for members of the center on the hardware components of a personal computer. The seminar was held in an informal format, and the audience, in turn, has been very active during the seminar and occasionally asked questions beyond the scope of presented topic, thereby showing the breadth of the participants’ interest in information technology.

According to Guljahon Mahmadkulova, chairman of the center “Millennium”, she regularly works on the computer, but she does not know its components and now, however, due to the seminar, she has learned to distinguish the main elements of computer and their purpose, and is very pleased with the acquired knowledge.

Sergei Kazin, deputy chairman of the center “Millennium”, has noted that during the seminar IT volunteers have also repaired a computer which was not working for quite a long time. UNDP’s ACCESS Project has funded the purchase of replacement parts - a motherboard, hard disk drive and power supply - and now the renovated computer can be fully and safely employed.

The next beneficiary of Days of Virtue was Tashkent School #17, where on 26 August a group of IT Volunteers prepared a computer class to the new academic year and shared computer tuning skills with group of students, which participated in the session.

Later, on 27 August a computer skills contest for children of Orphanage #21 was conducted. It is worth noting here that IT Volunteers have already conducted a series of trainings for residents of the orphanage, teaching them to work on a computer. This competition is a logical continuation of the training, which will allow the residents to test their knowledge of ICT, and to compare it with the knowledge of their peers. The winners received valuable prizes from the ICTP project.

These trainings were an important step in forming harmonically developed generation and the realization of creative and intellectual potential of the youth.

Three different groups of beneficiaries were targeted by "Days of Virtue", thus demonstrating the diverse directions of the IT Volunteers Service of the ICTP project.

The IT Volunteers Service, focusing on the promotion of ICT in Uzbekistan, functions in the ICTP project since May 2005 and aims at provision of various assistance in realization of ICT’s potential to non-profit organizations, public funds, government institutions, and educational institutions whose activities directly impact the development of society. Since its inception, approximately 150 volunteers were engaged in the project. Today, around 40 volunteers representing various universities of the country are involved in the ICTP project’s IT Volunteers Service.