Equip a rural Kenyan library with a computer lab

In the last months of 2015 the Elangata Wuas computer lab continued to be used by many students, teachers, community members and our computer students. The lab that was set up through the generosity of our donors remains one of the only places in Elangata Wuas to access computers and the internet free of charge.

Our coordinator Noah is enjoying teaching computer lessons three days/week. Currently he has 4 students: three who are nearing the completion of their lessons, and one who will finish in February. Upon graduation from Noah's lessons, participants receive official certificates listing the programs that they are proficient in. Noah has been enjoying seeing the difference that computer training can make in people's lives. Three students finished their computer classes in December, and one of them, Ezekiel explained: "The computer classes I took at the EWRC allowed me to enter college with a good knowledge of computers. This meant that I was able to skip many of the first year computer classes, saving a lot of money in tuition, and moving through my program more quickly."

Noah and the EWRC committee (made up of volunteers from the community) have been working in the last months on marketing computer classes more broadly in urban centres such as Kajiado where Elangata Wuas residents pay large amounts of money for transportation and computer classes. Getting lessons at a good price at the EWRC without the added cost of transport to Kajiado is a real resource to community members here. We are also marketing the lessons to students who have recently completed high school, and are awaiting their exam results before applying to colleges and universities. We aim to greatly increase the number of students this year.

In the month of December the Africa SOMA scholarship winners had a meeting at the EWRC and had the chance to learn to use the computers as well.

The current fundraising priority for the computer lab is to have wireless internet installed. At the moment we have two usb keys that can provide internet, but this only works for 2 computers at a time. The EWRC committee is working on applying to funding from local sources to contribute to this aim, and we will be following up with more details about our own fundraising efforts. 

Happy New Year from the Africa SOMA team and the Elangata Wuas Resource Centre! We are so grateful to each and every one of our donors in 2015. You have all contributed to providing access to computers and computer skills training in an area that otherwise would not have any.