Donation of out-of-use EA laptops helping to change lives in Uganda

The initiative came about when Nicola Whaley, who works in the Autism Advisory and Intervention Service, approached Gillian Cuthbert, SEN Support Service, to ask if the EA could help her daughter, Hannah, who travelled to Uganda earlier this year as part of a Youth Mission Team from Emmanuel Church in Lurgan.

With the support of Senior IT Operational Delivery Specialist, Gemma McNally, and her team, 64 laptops and docking stations were made ready for dispatch.

Speaking about the initiative, Gemma explained: “Providing a sustainable extension of a device’s lifespan, along with the social value of enabling young people to develop their IT skills made this an immensely rewarding project to be involved in.”

Hannah worked alongside the charities, ‘Fields of Life’ and ‘Charlene’s Project’, which have a shared vision of supporting children and young people in Uganda to have access to better life chances through education and empowerment.

She said: “The children and young people will now be given the opportunity to develop ICT skills, have easier access to information, and be supported with formal and informal learning within their classrooms.”

Gillian Cuthbert added:

“Thank you all within our EA services for making this happen alongside your busy schedules.

“In EA we strive to make a difference for young people. It is so good to know that this very much extends outside of Northern Ireland and across the world.” 

There was a special word of thanks, too, from Dr Richard Barr Chair of Trustees with Charlene’s Project.

“Since 2012, Charlene’s Project has been working across Uganda supporting schools that over 6,000 children attend”, Dr Barr explained.

“We have been providing latrines, teacher accommodation, teacher training with this year’s team focusing on delivering good academic, vocational and teacher training programmes.

“EA’s provision of laptops to two secondary schools will enable the teachers to equip the children and young people with good IT skills, increasing their employability and contributing to economic development in this impoverished community.

“I want to say a massive thank you to EA for making this happen on behalf of all the children who are being introduced to IT due to this wonderful initiative of EA.”