Kwahinkrom (...and Kissi and Komenda)

Over the last few months, I have been helping Zainab Lawson (a colleague at CSC) in her sterling efforts to establish an ICT lab in her home village of Kwahinkrom in Ghana. 

Currently, the children have ICT classes, but are taught to use MS Office applications on a blackboard as they have no computers.  As you can imagine, there is very little enthusiasm for ICT….however, the reality is that the children need ICT skills to secure good jobs or progress into higher education.

Classes using blackboards

One Team

Zainab set-up and registered a charity called 'Timely Aid', of which I am a proud Trustee, to enhance the future prospects of the children.  Zainab gained support from a number of contacts in CSC including Chris Wilson, Vice President, EBD and Dave Pearson, Vice President, EMEA Service Delivery.  Plus we have been talking to David Healey (MSS Head, EMEA Asset Planning & Control) over the last few months to see what we could provide in terms of refurbished machines.

Initially we had a commitment to provide 4 of the 40 desktops we needed from CSC - which was a great start.  Following a number of discussions by David with SCC, our Refurbishment & Disposal Vendor, this was  raised to 7 desktops,  and then we received the excellent news that David had successfully negotiated with SCC to donate all of the 40 desktop computers needed - with all the monitors, mice, keyboards and Windows XP operating systems!  CSC is also providing 2 projectors, a printer and all the necessary cables.  All of this equipment would have been disposed of, so it is wonderful to be able to put it to such good use with the potential to change people’s lives.

The School Building in Kwahinkrom

Following discussions between Zainab and the Chief of Kwahinkrom, Nana Kwahin V, he suggested that they share their good fortune with two other villages. So the proposal is that Kwahinkrom will receive 20 desktops plus Kissi and Komenda will receive 10 each. This means that CSC and SCC's generosity will benefit somewhere in the region of 35,000 people!

When Zainab told me this I really couldn't stop the tears (emotional old fool!), I am so proud of Zainab, David, SCC and CSC.

Chief of Kwahinkrom - Nana Kwahin V

Next Steps

The fundraising efforts don’t stop there - the next stage is to try to secure MS Office licences for the desktops.  With the support of Vince Powell and Emma Bateson, I have approached our CSC Microsoft Relationship Managers, Nathalie Elmira and Stephen Gale and contacted Microsoft Giving (their Charitable Section) and we are awaiting news - fingers crossed.  It looks as if we might get an upgrade pack to Windows 7 and MS Office 2010.  It just gets better and better!

In the long term, 'Timely Aid' aims to raise money to establish ICT labs in other African villages and also to supply food aid, so watch this space…  In the meantime if you require further information or would like to help, please contact me at mikeforte@gmail.com.