Empower Youths Through Computer Skills Training

Over the past years we have had to rent computer labs each time that we offered training.  The equipment available in the rental facilities has been inconsistent and imperfect relative to our purposes.  Also the room layouts have not been ideal.  With this in mind, we determined that the best solution would be to house our own facilities.  This offers several advantages including the ability to have more frequent sessions and also to have the equipment – both hardware and software that better suited our purposes.

I am delighted to report that we have made significant progress towards this.  The computer lab will be housed in the almost-completed Develop Africa Empowerment and Training Institute.  The structure of the room that will be housing the computer lab is ready.  We have also been able to purchase the first computer and the photos included in this report show Dolly, one of the youths using the computer – provided through the GlobalGiving / Give for Youth Partnership.

The youths and young adults and the community in general have been observing the progress excitedly and are eager to see it completed and to start using the new computer lab.  This lab will help us basic computer training free for hundreds of people.

What we finally need to do now is to fully furnish the room – in terms of 15 computer desks and chairs, 15 computers, a podium, document scanner, overhead projector and printer.  We are hoping to complete this by the end of the year and estimate that this project will take around $20,000 to complete. 
 
Strike a chord? Does this resonate with you in any way?  Would you be interested in being a part of making this happen in any way?  We would love to hear from you and be so grateful if you could join us in this worthy venture.  Together we will help to prepare hundreds of people in the community for success in our computer-aided society. 

How you can help:

• Help us fundraise for this project – creating a fundraiser here on GlobalGiving.   Through the fundraiser, you can invite your friends and family to support this worthy project.  If you would like to get involved and support this project in any way – feel free to contact Sylvester directly at syl – at – developafrica.org. 
    
• Sign up for a recurring donation to this project.  Now through March 28, GlobalGiving is offering a one-time, 100% match of any new recurring donation.  This would be a great way to help us take this project to the next level.   Sign up now to start your recurring donation - helping to provide the computer training for hundreds of youths!   Read more about the conditions here - http://bit.ly/YH1xXM

Thanks so much for your support and best of wishes