During #volunteersweek we would like to thank all our wonderful volunteers for their hard work and huge contribution to our charity. 
"We could not do our work without volunteers – they are the heart of everything.” Monis Khalifa – IT workshop manager 
What our volunteers say: 
“Volunteering at ITSA has benefited me greatly. I have new confidence in my own ability and do not rush things anymore.” Lewis Spring, Independent volunteer in the IT workshop.
“Thanks to volunteering at IT Schools Africa I feel like I can move on with my life with new confidence and hope." ITSA volunteer 

“Volunteering gave me a new found understanding on how computers work and an understanding of a real life working environment. It has allowed me to see the dedication that the people at ITSA have for their jobs. Which has made me want to bring that dedication to every aspect of my life.” Jamie Zara Basckin, Bournside School – Independent volunteer in the IT workshop.

“I’ve come such a long way and even surprised myself with new motivation to find a job." ITSA volunteer

Please continue to support our programmes by donating working IT equipment. In the light of the pandemic technology for education and participation is now more important than ever. 
Feedback from our African Programmes:
Schools in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been closed for the last few weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Sadly for most schools they do not have the resources to provide online schooling for students.  
We remain committed to providing computers, e-Learning materials, teacher training and our digital labs, to the schools most in need.  Our teams in Africa are working hard to provide support during these difficult times.  We are working with our partners and the Ministries of Education to develop new initiatives to improve digital education for children, which is now more essential than ever.

Feedback from our UK Community Programme:
At a time when our usual routines have been completely disrupted, the Covid-19 outbreak has highlighted the importance of digital access to information and services. We want to continue supporting our community partners in Gloucestershire to provide our support and service to those most vulnerable, as well as reopening our training and placement programmes at our Cheltenham site.

Our teacher training programme in Zambia was established, in partnership with Camara Education,  to help improve the delivery of digital education in schools. The objective is to improve teachers’ digital skills proficiency, and ultimately the students’ experience and education using computers. The programme works to build capacity of teachers and school leaders on the use of ICT in education, to help ensure the effective use of the computers that ITSA supplies.

​The certification is approved by the Zambian Ministry of Education and will enhance the teachers’ learning portfolios. We are delighted with the success of the Programme and  we will continue fundraising to support more teachers to improve their digital skills. 

We partner with schools and businesses who share our vision of transforming education through improved digital literacy. Improving life opportunities for ​school students and local communities through sustainable reuse of IT equipment. 

We are very proud of our longstanding 14 year partnership with Cheltenham Ladies College. Since 2006 over 1100 computers, laptops and monitors have been donated for educational and social projects in ​Africa and the UK. 

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We are very proud to announce that we have installed our 30th school
e-Learning lab. In total 23,600 students have been impacted across our 30 lab projects.         
Transforming lives by enabling education through digital technology and making a difference to the opportunities of the students. We support SDG 4 quality education, improving digital literacy where we work.

​ITSA's 30th e-Learning project is a 40-seat IT lab at Joel Sylvain High School in Ambalavao, Madagascar. This project has been a huge success and is the first of its type in this area of Madagascar. ​Each student now benefits from at least 2 hours of IT classes per week, with the IT lab being open from Monday to Saturday every week. Both students and teachers will benefit hugely from it.

Charlie Chabveka shares with us some of the realities of working in such a challenging environment. "With the current economy meltdown in Zimbabwe and an exchange rate of 1:20 to the USD$ (at the time of interview), this has led to many uncertain turn out of events so it’s difficult to plan on what will happen tomorrow or even anticipate the next few hours. In every town and city you go to there are queues everywhere, as people are looking for either fuel, money or water. Load shedding (power cuts) that lasts for 18 hours a day and only comes back at 10 pm, has affected the economy resulting in very little production."

"Why do I do what I do? There is nothing that brings the most joy other than working with children, seeing the children smile, some crying tears of joy when they realise that we believe in their future and believe in them. The most interesting thing about my job, is imparting the little knowledge that I have acquired, for the benefit of the next person and their community. Learning from the other communities and getting to understand the day to day life of the children and teachers makes it even more interesting." 

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters through this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge, IT Schools Africa raised £12,836 to fund an
e-Learning lab for students in Malawi in just 7 days.
​We were delighted to have taken part in the UK’s biggest match funding campaign and every donation was important to us. The Big Give’s record-breaking campaign, which ran from 03-10 December 2019, generated over £15 million in vital funding for good causes across the country, matching donations pound for pound until the funding pot was empty. ​Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Alec Reed CBE, founder of The Big Give, says: 
“The public’s generosity to this year’s Christmas Challenge has been phenomenal. It demonstrates just how much the public values the work of UK charities and the services they provide. 
“Match funding has proved yet again to be an incredibly powerful incentive to give, enabling the public to maximise their impact on good causes.”

"Giving students access to IT helps them reach their education destination and allows them to fulfil their dreams." Boni Chipembere, Programme Manager.
  
Thank you for your generosity and ongoing support.

We are delighted to be taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2019. For one week only, online donations raised for our digital literacy project for students in Malawi, will be DOUBLED as part of a match funding campaign. 
Save the date: 12pm 3rd December - 12pm 10th December. The campaign offers supporters the opportunity to double their donations during this week. For example, an online donation of £100 is doubled to £200. If Gift Aid is claimed, the donation could be worth £225. Donations are doubled whilst matching funds last.

​There are extreme levels of low computer literacy in Malawi as most schools are yet to introduce basic computer literacy into their curriculum. Our vision is for all students where we work in Africa to benefit from fully functioning e-Learning technology to provide access to further education and improved opportunities for employment. 
We are raising money to install a world class e-Learning lab at a secondary school in Malawi. We have provided 25 computer labs to schools most in need in the country. 
​Together we can transform lives through access to quality IT education.

We are building an IT lab for a disabled school in the country's second city, Blantyre. The lab will be the first of its kind in the township of Bangwe. The school is run by brother and sister Rex and Fatima Salima, who are both disabled themselves. The school promotes disabled young people’s right to education and aims to facilitate inclusion in all aspects of life.

Disabled children and young adults struggle in Malawi to even gain a formal education, digital facilities are scant and schools that do have such facilities are largely inaccessible to people with disabilities. 

Digital skills are in high demand and a digital education can provide disabled people with valuable skills and knowledge that can help empower them to secure better paid jobs or to start their own businesses.

We are very proud to be approaching our 15th anniversary of transforming lives through access to e-Learning and making a difference to the lives of the students. This will be a very special year to reflect and celebrate on the impact both in Africa and in our local community. Plans are underway to mark this milestone in the history of the charity. Please stay tuned!