New equipment for our computer room

Next step...

We are so thankful for the progress we made! We have quoted different prices on computers, and we have found a dealer who sold us our requested model much cheaper than the other companies because we ordered so many.

Last week, we received our longawaited computers and acessories. We arranged a room where we can store and test the equipment until the next holiday. The upgrade of the room will be done in the end of april, when the students have break and the work will not disturb their lessons.

We are moving on!

The first proposals have come in and in the next days we will decide for one of them.

In the meantime one of our volunteers, a professional carpenter, designed the computer desk for the PCs. Soon the carpenters will start producing a number of them for.
Even a preview of the new computer room is now available!

There is great news concerning the project "Computer room":

Even though the project was just announced three weeks ago in our newsletter and on this website, there have already been so many donations that we can start the work much earlier than expected!

The required amount for this project has been raised so that we now have the money to start equipping our new computer room with good and modern PCs. The new computers will even be fast enough for advanced operating systems and our students will still enjoy working on them even in a couple of years!

We thank all the donors from the bottom of our hearts!
You have given a great christmas gift to us and most especially to our students!

We will now start to consult some local computer dealers for concrete proposals and see for the best fitting offert available.
Our carpentry students arrive next week and we will soon discuss with their teachers how to design and build the computer desks.

We will keep you updated about the blessing of getting new computers.

Why computer lessons

Even in Uganda computer lessons are very important for a good education. That’s why our vocational students all get such instructions. The learn how to use a computer, get to know the function and handling of a system software and lern how to use the most important programs, such as text processing, spreadsheet and presentation.
We are convinced, that our pupils will later benefit very much from it in their professional life, if they now learn how to handle a computer. Even as not every professional group works directly with computers, this knowledge is still of great advantage in the long term.
For a fairly designed letter of application and a well structured curriculum vitae convince at an application for a job, even if the job doesn’t require computer knowledge!
And who doesn’t want to stay in contact with friends via email, or get the latest news from the internet?

Our computer room

Up to now the lessons were held on of different, used, and relatively old computers (Pentium II and Pentium III processors), which made everything quite difficult. Moreover there are hardly any spare parts for those old computers, so that some have already been beyound repair, which leads to a continually decreasing number of computers that can be used for the lessons.

Now we want to equip our computer room newly

We want to buy simple, new systems here on site, in order to ensure that we’ll get spare parts if necessary. We are planning to have 15 new work stations (Pentium IV or Core 2 processors) and suitable computer tables (which we want to construct in our own joinery). The costs for each workstation amount to about €450,--.

Why new computers

We want to buy  new computers in order to simplify the administration for us, and the learning for the students. 15 structurally identical computers facilitate the installing, maintenance and repair a lot, and even for the students it is much easier, if it is not important any more, which computer they sit at – for here in Uganda hardly anybody grows up with a computer, like in Europe or America.
Very often friends have given us their old computers, hoping they could help us. But the transportation and high customs duties make such presents very expensive for us and not seldom they are not even usable for us, because of their age, and are therefore thrown away after their long and expensive journey. This is another reason why we want to have new computers, that can be bought here on site.

Donations

We’d be very happy with your donation for this project! (please use „computer room“ as intended purpose)

12.01.2010: We are very happy to announce that the needed money for this project has already been donated! (also see new entry above)

Pictures of the computer room we now use

One of our students from the first course in media design, is now teaching the students from the vocational schools.