Zambia

Landed safely in Zambia 16th Feb

Within two hours of touchdown we were in an unscheduled meeting with the British Council Project Officer for Digital matters in Zambia. We discussed how we might support his overall remit and fill in any gaps not addressed by other organisations at present.

Through him we then visited Computers for Africa and suggested to them the benefits of code clubs in the computer hubs they were involved in setting up.

17^th February

Broke our journey south with a visit to Chilanga First Primary School to see their computer hub installed by British Council in partnership with Airtel. We soon identified that the Pcs would benefit from networking. In a huge school like this, more than 1300 pupils, it would always be a challenge to give computer access to all pupils . Once again we suggested code clubs as a great way to introduce pupils to programming. The head teacher was interested in our visit and is allowing several of his teachers to travel to Siavonga in a few days to learn more.

Swanfrica Network meeting

I attended a most useful workshop today at the Environment Centre, Swansea. Thanks to Swanfrica and Women4Resources for organising it.

Representatives of various Wales-based charities working in Africa met together to share ideas and experiences and see how we could work together more closely. We identified common themes of education and training, and trading relationships.

Another focus to the day was to support budding entrepreneurs by setting up a mentoring scheme called GWEN.

Donated computers arrive in Lusaka

Good news that the boxes of donated computers and laptops (despatched months ago via itschoolsafrica) have arrived in Lusaka and will be picked up shortly by Charli Mangalazi of Siavonga High School.

Equipment that people in UK might just throw away, can be refurbished by us to perform well in Zambia. If you have anything of the kind, please consider donating to us.