South African Computer Lab for 450 Children

Summary

Our goal is to build a computer lab for 450 students in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. For students to succeed in the twenty-first century, they must learn how to master computers for myriad uses. After KPMG generously donated 30 laptops for this lab, we now need to raise funds to renovate the lab space. What a gift! We hope you will join forces to add a third computer lab to this area, effectively bringing the computer literacy rate in the region much closer to 100%.

$7,500
total goal

$7,325
remaining

3
donors

0
monthly donors

1
year

Challenge

A primary school of 450 children in South Africa suffers from a paucity of exposure to computers, curricular development, software usage, Internet research, and twenty-first century technology. This project will diminish the possibility of students falling behind, underscore the importance of education, and keep them in school. Consequently, the cycle of poverty will be interrupted in rural South Africa, leading the region to better paying jobs and reduced unemployment.

Solution

This project will, from an early age, help students be computer literate. Whether or not we like the onslaught and ubiquity of technology, it is a reality; students without extensive exposure fall behind and struggle much more than peers who have built an impressive computer foundation, including Microsoft software exposure, Internet acumen, research and writing skills, and general fluidity in the computer field. A proper lab will help children find and rightfully claim their more hopeful path.

Long-Term Impact

Since the installation of our first two labs (in 2015 and in 2020), computer literacy amongst educators and students has risen to 100%, the pass rates, especially in English and mathematics, have improved, and the matric (high school exam) pass rates have improved, too; we would like to see that same growth unfold at St. Ignatius Primary School. Computer Science and other popular, important, impactful fields, would be in students' sights, but only with proper, early intervention and training.