In June, Quench and Connect wired funds to two of our project schools for computers.  Each of these schools had previously received support from Quench and Connect to set up science teaching laboratories for their students (funds awarded by the VWR Foundation, now the Avantor Foundation). The teachers at each school purchased items of small equipment for the teaching labs, as well as chemicals, reagents, charts and textbooks to teach biology, chemistry and physics in their curriculum.  Now the students at both schools are studying science and performing well in the national exams.  Before we provided the science teaching tools, one of the schools, St. Jude Burora Secondary School in the Kagadi District, was threatened with closure by the Ministry of Education for not teaching science.  This year, with the improved academic performance, the school applied for status as a National Testing Center for the UNEB exams.

While both St. Jude Burora SS and Heroes SS are now successfully teaching science curricula, the teachers reported that they were not able to teach computer technology because they had no computers for their students.  Computer instruction is mandated by the Ministry of Education. To help correct this problem, Quench and Connect wired funds directly to the school bank accounts at these two schools and the teachers purchased the equipment needed to teach computer science. At Heroes SS in the Rakai District, the campus has one government-provided electrical pole, so funds were used to purchase 8 laptop computers and a digital projector for overhead instructional display.  Have a look at the picture to see the students at Heroes SS with their new computer equipment!

At St. Jude BuroraSS, there is no electrical power line, so the teachers purchased solar panels, inverters, batteries and 12 laptop computers. They built the computer laboratory with the advice of Mr. Nyanga Yosefu, a computer engineer at Makerere University in Kampala, who had previously designed a solar-driven computer laboratory at Unity College Ngetta, a Quench and Connect project school in Lira District.  We are sharing with you some of the pictures of the installation of this computer lab at St. Jude Burora SS so you can see the challenges associated with technology in developing countries.  Look at the gentleman climbing up the classroom roof with a solar panel on his back.  And look at the two men sitting at the peak of the roof attaching the solar panels!! The picture of the students with their new computers is dark because it is taken in the classroom and there is no electricity for lights. 

Many thanks to all of you for giving these students a chance to use computers.  It will open the world for them!!