I received a great email from Keith and Lisa Coggin the other day and I thought I would share it with you. Loyal readers will remember that we set up this classroom in Gulu, one of the most war-torn areas in East Africa popularized by Joseph Koni and his army of abducted children soldiers.
We had set up classrooms before in Kenya and Uganda, and the result wasn’t always that great. In most cases the machines were neglected and the classrooms deteriorated sometimes to the point that we had to remove all the equipment. So needless to say I had some fears about how this equipment would end up. After all, they were living in a very remote area.
But the photos they sent set my mind at ease. I could see that the machines We’re in excellent shape. They were all clean, the room was swept and it looked almost as if we had just installed everything.
Students seemed interested and attentive, and the teacher had their attention. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, rest assured that it is. We haven’t had the best track record with these classrooms which is why we moved to the model of running a community training center where we could maintain the machines ourselves.
I had a feeling this time would be different. Keith and Lisa initially reported that the computer teacher, Emily was extremely excited to have the machines at her disposal, more than that she was anxious to get more training for herself. So they signed her up for classes at our training center and sure enough she showed up. Not only did Emily show up, she exceeded our expectations and took more than the basic requirements. Now she’s anxious to come back to Jinja to take more advanced training during the term break.
Needless to say, I’m excited about this progress and can’t wait to see how things continue to unfold.
Thanks for making this classroom possible and enjoy the photos!
