.....working away!

So we have arrived and have been working away for the past week at the ICT Resource Centre in Malindi.
The guys here have been working hard, what with their day to day activities, volunteers working through the centre for the past month and having received new computers through PCs for Africa.

Jim our Rasta man manager has been running a good ship, having come from a community development background, he has been pushing the name of the centre deep into the community here in Malindi. Using his contacts he has been organising community basketball competitions, placeing Irish volunteers in schools and medical centres as requested, and channeling PCs for Africa computers to prepared schools in the district.

Gitau our communictions, PR and general hard working representitive has also been pushing the name and functions of the centre out into the community. Everyone at the centre welcomes visitors from the community who call in at any time of the day for various reasons, to find out about the activities of the centre, enquire about our computer training courses, computer services, or to see what technology there is and what can be done with it.

Amosh our professional computer trainer has a break from large groups of students, as the schools are off on holidays until next week, but he has a few private students each day, and once the schools come back he will be having groups of 20 kids at a time in the centre. These students are coming from schools which don't have their own computer lab yet, and so they have been sending their students directly to us instead. Its great seeing how up to 3 students can use one machine at the same time!
Also we are now starting to use Linux - Edebuntu Open Source FREE software, so there is now the great challenge of getting this new software into the minds of the users.

Now that myself and David(volunteer) have arrived at the centre we have been busy making what we see as improvements to the infrastructure of the centre, plus some organisational changes too. We've been looking at how everything is run and we're trying to make these processes more efficient and effective.

David, our volunteer from Ireland who is turning out to be an invaluable IT professional has already networked the ICT Centre and is starting on networking some of the school computer labs, so that the Internet connections we'll be installing will be shared, plus files and printers.
He has also been helping with getting each computer at the centre running correctly, training and advising on appropriate software and hardware plus adding some great ideas for the centre, while helping others like the Red Cross with their machines too.

There are many things that we are at, so will keep you updated on activities more regularly over the next few weeks, as we progress through our month here.


Lindsay

Games are a star attraction, so people are allowed to come in at anytime for 1 hour and play. This gives so much more than just playing and not being idle, the skills needed to operate any task on a computer are also learnt, but in a fun environment

New Computer Room @ Malindi Prison

We have been training the inmates of Malindi prison for some time now. And now with the arrival of another container to Malindi of computers, with thanks to PCs for Africa and Camara Education we have been able to setup a computer lab in the prison itself.

2007 Volunteer Trip

So after much preparation and fund raising, myself and David O'Loughlin are heading over to Malindi to lend a hand for the next month.

Thank you to all who helped and supported the Fund Raising Pirate Show at the weekend. At was a great success, and enjoyed by all, including me which is always a bonus! From this event, laptop sale donations and private donations, there has been over €3000 raised again this year. So with this money, plus David's money he raised himself to invest in the projects, we are well on our way to helping further develop the ICT Resource Centre and also be able to check on things with the schools for PCs for Africa.

Jim, the manager at the centre has plenty of plans for us to get involved in, which includes setting up Internet at the centre, networking a few of the local schools and participating in a basketball competition we are funding.

Should be an exciting trip, and we hope to keep you posted.



Lindsay