Bringing Technology to Rural schools in Zimbabwe

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to you for your continued support of our Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) project. According to statistics, more than 2.5 billion people live in rural areas of developing countries which are underserved because development is disproportionately concentrated in urban areas.  Zimbabwe is no exception.  It has a population of over 14 million. More than 75% of the population of Zimbabwe lives in the rural areas where teachers and students have limited access to technology. The majority of the rural schools do not offer computer training because they simply dont have the funds to purchase computers and the teachers lack computer skills.  

After high school, over 70% of rural students drop out of school due to poverty and they end up going to urban areas to look for jobs yet they are ill-prepared to enter the workforce.

The ultimate goal of this project is to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban schools. The following are some of the positive outcomes linked to the use of technology in schools:

• Improvement in the quality of education as the teachers will have better tools for teaching
• Improvement in students' academic performance 
• Increase in economic opportunities as there is a need for computer skills in today's workforce

Through your donations you are a playing a major role in helping us address the "Digital Divide". To date we have worked in collaboration with our in-country partner, Computers For Zimbabwean Schools (CZWs) to provide five computer training workshops to 25 teachers.   The workshops were a big success! Here is what some of the teachers had to say:

In His Own Words By The Headmaster

"We are grateful for the workshops that have been conducted by the Tekeshe Foundation with the help of the donors. The workshops have been a great eye opener! During one of these workshops, the instructor gave us an overview of the 21st century tools that CZWs offers for teaching. He demonstrated how to use a projector. This topic generated a lot of interest among the teachers. As the headmaster of Rimbi High school, I made a commitment to the teachers that I would purchase some projectors for our school. 

I am also very grateful to the Tekeshe Foundation  and to the donors for bringing the internet to Rimbi High! "

In His Own Words By One Of The Teachers

"We thank you very much for providing the funds that enable us to attend computer training workshops.  We have benefited tremendously from these workshops.  We kindly ask you to help us with computers that way we can have hands-on training during the workshops. This would be of great help.  Thanks again for helping us."

Update On Laptops For The Teachers

Though this proect is a big success, one of the challenges is that the teachers have limited access to computers. We are pleased to announce that we are in the process of forming a parnternship with a company that offers a program for teachers to purchase laptops through monthly installments. We will give you an update on this program in our next progress report.

Thanks again for all your support!

Best Regards,

Thelma

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to you for your continued support of this project. This project is at the heart of our organization and is our strategy for bridging the digital divide that exists between rural and urban schools.

As more and more jobs require technology, it is important that students understand how to use technology in a variety of ways. Unfortunately rural schools in Chipinge are underserved, and like many other remote rural schools in developing countries they are unable to offer computer training and internet access to students because they simply don’t have the funds to buy computers and the teachers lack computer skills.  After high school, over 70% of rural students drop out of school due to poverty and they end up going to the urban areas to look for jobs yet they are ill-prepared to enter the work force because they have no skills; unlike their urban counter parts who have computer skills.

The ultimate goal of this project is to provide the students with the skills essential for the 21st century that will increase their employability skills and place them on a level playing field to better compete for jobs.

What We Have Accomplished Together

With your help we have conducted four successful computer training workshops and have provided  computer training to twenty five teachers. On September 8, 2014 we reached a major milestone in the history of our organization, we finally brought the internet to Rimbi High school.  To date one thousand students and fifty teachers at Rimbi High school have access to the internet. Here is what one of the teachers from Rimbi High had to say:

In his own words from one of the teachers:

"We are very grateful to you for providing us internet connectivity. The teachers and students at Rimbi High now have access to a world of information. We can never thank you enough. We are very pleased with the VSAT internet connectivity provided by TELOne. The internet service is very reliable. We are looking forward to your help upgrading the system so that we can have more computers connected to the internet. We are grateful that Rimbi High school is now on par with urban schools. "

We have made a lot of progress but we still have a long way to go to reach our goal. We are now in PHASE 3 of this project. Here is what we hope to accomplish in this phase:

PHASE 3 OF THE PROJECT

The goal of the this phase is to continue Computer and Internet Literacy Training .
•The teachers who completed the first training will be trained on the tools for intergrating ICT into the curriculum
•Sensitization workshop will be conducted for the new group of teachers
•After the sensitization workshops, the new group of teachers will receive the Computer Literacy training that the first group of teachers went through. [This training covers, basic computer skills, Microsoft Office and the internet]
•Upgrade VSAT system at Rimbi High

As you can see from the pictures and the testimonial from one of the the teachers, this project is making a difference in the lives of rural teachers and students. This could not be possible without your support. Thank you so much!!!

Best wishes,

Thelma