The Rotary Club of Chelmsford Mildmay is celebrating being awarded the Graham Savage Trophy for the best District 1240 International Project 2011/12.
Obsolete computers were collected, wiped clean and shipped to Tanzania, East Africa, for use by schools. Various fundraising activities paid for packing and transportation and the club is grateful to the schools and individuals who donated computer equipment.
The project started as a pilot, spurred by a member of the club who was completing a PhD in wireless technology at the local university. Amani was from Tanzania, retained contacts there and knew that schools, businesses and individuals frequently replaced computers.
The club was fortunate to have his involvement from the outset and his colleague continued to work with us when Amani returned home. Both helped club members to understand the context, not only about life in Tanzania, both rural and urban, but also about the political system, how education worked within it and where different powers lay.
The social culture within Tanzania, how the potential project would be received, the likely attitudes of communities and why it would be important to build in the development of community ownership and longer term sustainability plans were also explained.
Over 10,000 students and 414 teachers have benefited from the first shipment. The second shipment of computer equipment will benefit a very rural area in the Rift Valley and will include tents collected by Rotarians after Chelmsford’s V-Festival.
