Future leader, Dorcas, recently started college, and thanks in part to your support she received a personal laptop for school work.   Dorcas is studying to become an accountant.

She expressed her appreciation in this video saying

Hi, my name is Dorcas. I'm a beneficiary of Develop Africa. I received this laptop today and I'm so excited to use it to do research and my assignments. I really do appreciate it. Thank you!

Thanks to your ongoing support 21 vocational trainees graduated recently, 2 men and 19 women with practical skills training offered in the centre include tailoring, literacy and numeracy, life skills, business skills, and others/related arts like soap making, beadwork, rug making, doll making, gara tie-dye. 

Because of YOU, more girls are getting their education and the support they need to become future leaders in Africa. The FAWE school, an all-girls school, was able to add 6 new monitors to their computer lab thanks to your support.

The teacher reports that the classes were so effective that the girls love coming to their computer class. The students are now showing proficiency in moving the mouse, typing on the keyboard, changing the desktop background, changing date/time, opening programs like LibreOffice Writer, closing/minimizing/maximizing programs, and many more.

We greatly appreciate your ongoing support for the future leaders in Sierra Leone. Thanks to you, more youths and young adults are getting the computer training they need for success in today's technology-driven environment.

There are currently 51 students attending computer training at the Develop Africa Sierra Leone (DASL) Computer lab.  The current computer classes at DASL Computer Lab run in three shifts. Shifts run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, or on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Classes are held from 9:30-11:30am, 12:00pm-2pm, and from 3:00pm to 5:15pm every day.

Hope you are doing well and taking care of yourselves during these volatile times.

As a team, in the spirit of continuous improvement, we regularly review progress, monitor, and evaluate the services that we are providing.  This is done from several perspectives or angles.

So today, we share with you a summary of course evaluations by computer trainees at the Juba Hill computer lab.  Here are some highlights:

A recent report published by eLearning Africa highlights The Effect of Covid-19 on Education in Africa and its Implications for the Use of Technology.

Here are some highlights

1. A lack of access to technology is considered to be the biggest barrier for learning during the current pandemic together with school closures. Respondents felt that learners in rural communities are those most likely to be

We’re together helping to close the technology gap for the future leaders of Freetown one student at a time.

This has been possible thanks to you and an organization called Computer Equipment for Kids. 

Computer Equipment for Kids is an organization in Virginia that provides computer equipment to families who cannot afford them. They take old/used laptops/tablets, refurbish them by cleaning the system, installing a new operating system, and fixing minor issues. They have been sending a steady supply of refurbished laptops and tablets to Develop Africa.

Even in this time of crisis, we have so much to be thankful for.

This GlobalGiving project was launched in 2010. Thankfully since then we together have helped to provide computer training to hundreds of children and youths. This has included the following:

Providing computer training at the FAWE school lab since 2011

Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated and is helping girls get their education at the FAWE Girls School. This school year FAWE has 40 girls (ages 8-11 years) from classes 4,5 and 6 taking computer classes. These girls are excited and eager to learn and are thankful for the opportunity. 

Many youths and young adults in Sierra Leone have very limited access to computers or computer training due to financial limitations. Your continued support is greatly appreciated as more students can get computer training at the Develop Africa Sierra Leone Computer Lab (DASL). This will give them the tools they need to be successful in today's technology-driven society.