Digital Literacy: IT for Street Children

We have almost reached our goal of raising $50,000 for our project Digital Literacy: IT for Street Children. Your support has provided laptops, cables, printers and other computer supplies, thousands of hours of IT classes for our students, and helped developed curricula and provided training for our teachers. Thank you for making an enormous difference in our students' lives.

Our twice weekly classes are now in their eighth month for our new girls attending MindLeaps in 2017.  While the IT classroom is an important space for students to learn basic hardware and software skills, it is also a space where they can fully take advantage of all the incredible resources that digital media and the internet offer. For example, our students are practicing their English Language as well as their typing skills in Pen Pal exchanges. MindLeaps students were matched with students enrolled in Deception Bay State High School in Australia to send each other emails. In addition, the IT classroom was an opportunity for MindLeaps students to support their fellow classmates and used as a screening space to see their friends perform at the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Kigali (photo above).

Our 2016 graduates, who are now enrolled in formal schooling, have completed their second terms and are continuing to succeed in their academic and IT classes. MindLeaps Rwanda staff and volunteers recently visited the schools (photo below), and our students were eager to show off their skills -- though admittedly more excited to show off their dance moves than their Excel formulas! You can view a video online here: https://vimeo.com/228085048

Thank you again for helping provide digital literacy to our students in Rwanda. Your support is giving them the needed skills to be successful in their future careers and help themselves and their families out of poverty.