In 2015 education without a laptop is almost unthinkable anywhere. In Ghana's impoverished schools, laptops are almost nonexistent. Without computer knowledge, girls' future job options can be limited. With computer literacy they can break out of the small box society has assigned to them, escaping poverty and constricting gender roles. WomensTrust has long offered innovative computer literacy classes for these reasons, but the laptops that the girls we support use are aging and must be replaced
Old and broken down laptops are making our computer literacy courses impossible to teach, so our girls are in danger of getting trapped in lives of poverty, and, like so many of their peers, being unable to attend university. Laptops open up new worlds of employment for girls in Ghana, who have no access to computers otherwise. We need 28 new laptops to replace the computers we use in our courses and provide the girls who are now at university with laptops vital to their courses of study.
With these 28 laptops we can not only continue the computer classes we offer to secondary school girls, but also provide our University students with with a resource vital to the successful completion of their education. These laptops are a rare opportunity for Ghanian girls who have no access to computers. A laptop may not seem like a big deal to residents of Europe or the US, but for girls in Ghana they are extremely rare tools for successful learning and successful careers.
With access to a laptop a girl can change not only her own life, but the lives of families and entire communities. Educated women have access to a range of better jobs, and possess the skills and confidence needed to change the world. All of the girls who have received our help and gone on to university plan to give back to their towns and their country. As educated women they are more likely to educate their own girls, who will then become successful, ending a cycle of poverty and limitation.