In celebration of Girls in ICT Day, Sri-Mas, UKM, SEACON, SAFSeN and ITU held a workshop for female high school students in Kelantan. The workshop was held in CeranaResort and Min House Camp, Kelantan on 16-17 April 2015 with the aim of bridging old and new technologies through an interactive session on the use of bamboo and ICT for sustainable living.

A total of 19 girls from various schools throughout the region and with diverse i
nterests and disciplines were in attendance. For the introductory session of the program, the girls were exposed to cultural uses of bamboo. This involved p
reparation of popular Malaysian cuisines that make use of bamboo as cooking utensils. Cooking with bamboo is a Malaysian tradition, and keeping this t
radition alive goes hand in hand with celebrating Malaysia’s rich culture and values.

An introductory session on the use of ICT for sustainable agriculture and food 
security was held on the first day as well. All of the attendees were IT-literate with active email and Facebook accounts, so they were promptly introduced to 
the ICT platform SAFSeN.

On the following day, the workshop was hosted at Min House Camp, a home stay
farm that is an inspirational example for sustainable production of bamboo and honey ( http://www.sea-farmnet.org/20140917135/malaysia/trigona-garden-atmin-house-camp.html ).
 The girls were trained on the tools for networking. This included a session on blogging conducted by Pusat Internet 1Malaysia, Kelantan – the local program 
for promotion of availability and usage of internet services. They were also trained on using the ICT platform SAFSeN for sharing knowledge and
 experiences related to agriculture, food security and nutrition. The girls were eager to post on the platform and shared entries based on their experiences on 
the use of bamboo ( http://www.seafarmnet.org/20150417236/malaysia/buluh.html) and on their visit to Min House Camp ( http://www.sea-farmnet.org/20150417238/malaysia/a-visit-to-minhouse-camp-from-wanita-pembuluh-negara.html ).

Use of bamboo in arts and crafts is another integral part of Malaysian culture and the girls boasted their talents using bamboo handicraft. This was yet 
another platform for the girls to voice their thoughts on their contribution to the society. In another interactive session, the girls were quizzed to name local fresh 
produce to develop a Malaysian produce-based alphabet which tested the knowledge of the girls on the local produce.

Bamboo is an effective agricultural tool that can be used in sustainable 
architecture and has the added benefit of flood-resiliency. Such a technology can be of immense value to Kelantan, a flood-prone region in Malaysia that recently
 suffered from one of the worst floods in the past decades. The attendees all shared their concerns of an eminent flood in the coming monsoon season and 
had no doubt that Kelantan will suffer from another episode.

ICT is a powerful tool for connecting society, and young girls are the arteries keeping the nation alive. At the same time, traditional knowledge is gradually
 dying, so keeping the up and coming generation knowledgeable of traditional wisdom end encouraging the sharing of this knowledge is highly desirable