Promoting Human Rights Through Technology
In today’s world where technology makes it easier to reach out to a wider audience thereby growing existing networks and amplifying the visibility of any organisation, the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) realised they needed to upgrade their information technology (IT) capacity to promote the rights of Ghanaian citizens more effectively.
Their malfunction website hindered its partners and beneficiaries from engaging with them.
“Prior to our participation in the technology project, many of HRAC’s target audience and potential donors tried engaging with us virtually without any luck. Now, our upgraded online presence will enhance our engagement,” Bright Bampoe Addo, IT Officer of HRAC gleefully shared.
To achieve this, HRAC felt the need to apply for the technology project initiated by WACSI in July 2017 which was supported by OSIWA.
HRAC knew that they needed to enhance their productivity so that they can promote the human rights of the Ghanaians.
“Through this project, HRAC has improved its use of technology and its tools to promote human rights in Ghana”, Bampoe Addo explained.
As part of the project, HRAC benefitted from donated IT products such as Office 365 and licensed Microsoft Office products from Techsoup WestAfrica, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to providing donated technology products to nonprofit organisations.
“The introduction of licensed software has made our work easier. Our team can now boast of the same versions of applications. Due to the different cracked versions of software we used, we mostly could not access each other’s documents as a team when shared”, Bampoe Addo confessed.
“Now, the issue of losing documents and our inability to view documents collectively is a thing of the past”, he concluded.
HRAC also benefitted from seed funding through which they developed a functional website. “Our website which was not functioning well is now functioning appropriately. The redevelopment of the www.hracghana.org website has made our work more visible as it is easier for our beneficiaries to navigate our website to learn more about our work,” he happily shared.
