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With a school roll of many thousands of students, the processing of school records by hand takes a huge amount of time and effort at the Fasiledes School. We very soon realised that a computer or two could very much relieve this burden. At the same time, it was becoming very evident that the ambitious young people of Gondar were going to lag far behind in the job stakes if they were not able to get some experience of modern technology and its inevitable uses in the workplace. We started by taking a couple of computers to the Fasiledes School, where they were put to good use in giving particular teachers and administrative staff a little experience in this field. Likewise, our GondarGap volunteers were able to help considerably with some sound advice whenever the going got tough. But this was hardly scratching the surface in dealing with the necessity of bringing the Gondar teachers and students up to speed technologically. GondarLink therefore became committed to attempting something a little more ambitious in this area. Thanks to Mr David Mathers, a parent of one of the erstwhile GondarGap volunteers, and Brunel University where he is a computer expert, fifty individual computer systems were slowly assembled and equipped in readiness for a major journey through the Red Sea and onwards up into Ethiopia. These fifty computers were destined for a number of the Gondar schools, where they would undoubtedly provide the first computer experience that many of the staff or students would have had. The journey of these computers was neither as speedy nor as secure as we had hoped for, despite careful planning in conjunction with various agencies. They travelled speedily and without hitch to Djibouti - where they met their long-term sticking place! Despite efforts by the Ethiopian Embassy in London and the Ministry of Education in Addis Ababa, they sat in the hot sun of Djibouti for many months while inaction was the watchword of the day. They have at last arrived in Gondar, and David Mathers has generously travelled out to Ethiopia to welcome them and to install them. Thanks to the vagaries of the journey, ten systems met their demise in transit. GondarLink is nevertheless delighted that it has been able to provide computers in each of its present link schools - a set of 24 machines in the Preparatory School for teaching purposes, 4 each to the secondary schools working with GondarLink, and one to each of the elementary schools. It was an expensive and insecure trip for these machines. GondarLink would love to repeat the exercise in the future, but will hope for a greater level of safety and support with any future consignment. Have you signed our Guestbook? Email | Top
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire