Tuntimo a new resources & platforms to help parents in home schooling, decolonising the curriculum and alternative education programmes has been launched.
The founder, Oriana Gowie, a Talent and Recruitment Manager and Cultural Expert is a working mother of two young Black boys, based in London.
Oriana is a passionate diversity and inclusion leader, working across a range of sectors, high profile organisations and complex organisational structures.
With a degree in Law with Business and Masters in Personnel and Development, she is also the Founder and CEO of Tuntimo – an online educational Black history and confidence building platform for children aged 5-11 years old – and was recently named one of Harpers Bazaar’s Five Black Women Shaping the Future in 2020.
What inspired the project?
With the recent “social unrest”, there has been an increased focus on the issues of injustice and inequality faced by the Black community, which has prompted a renewed interest in diversity and inclusion in what is included in the UK curriculum and education, which has impacted how she wants her children to see the world, and how the world sees her children.
After the equalities minister openly condemning the teaching of critical race theory in schools, many people are no longer waiting on the Government. With this Oriana began developing an online interactive educational platform focusing on Black history learning content for young children aged 5-11, parents and schools, and be the go-to source for information on black history for families of all races, as well as schools and other educational facilities.
In an interview with African Voice, Oriana Gowie, creator of Tuntimo, said: “I realised that there weren’t any platforms that were made for children to learn about Black history. There were a few educational sites to teach young children about history, but none that reflected Black achievements and histories in a positive light. I wanted to create something for my children and the children across the country, and across the world, to use and learn about themselves and their friends. With the increase of racial tensions and global pandemic meaning that parents will be homeschooling, I knew this would be the best time for parents to help educate their children on the importance of Black history, that often isn’t included in the UK curriculum. It’s important of Black children to understand the riches and heritage of their culture and that their history goes beyond what is taught at schools.”
“I came up with the idea of creating a platform for children to learn about Black history and create something that would build confidence in young children about their identity. My aim was to design something that I would have loved to have had access to growing up. To get the site up and running has been a huge challenge due to limited resources but I have had the support of great volunteers and people that have offered their services at a discount. I have had some disappointments too which comes with any project, needless to say, I was determined to create something so you could see what is possible. We have raised over £5,000 but the costs add up as we needed coders, illustrations and admin support etc. I even learnt how to design the website and other new skills (not coding yet) to save money and to bring the vision to life. I am delighted to say we have created a website which is now live! We have included over 200 profiles of Black people that have achieved great things. We have tried to feature people from different parts of the world with different achievements. We hope that now phase 1 is now live, we will receive more donations to create a full platform with logins and dashboards so we can add trackers and provide age-appropriate content to the user.”
Innovation
Tuntimo, is the new FREE online interactive educational platform focusing on Black history learning content for young children aged 5-11.
Readers can follow and interact with Tuntimo on all social media platforms @tuntimokids on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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