...and we are getting more excited for each day that passes. We've been working hard with practical issues, sorting equipment and preparing the equipment for the first centre. The staff at the ICT department are well-informed of the project, and we share a common vision of providing as many people as possible with ICT access, and to make the project sustainable.

Planning with the University …

During the coming month, we will switch to some more personal blogging, and this is a post hopefully to be followed up by many more about the next month of practical work to implement IT Centres around the Mzuzu area of Northern Malawi.

Lately, we have been in close contact, preparing the project with Mzuzu University's ICT head of department, Seyani Nayeja, who has also blogged about the project [1]. …

As a new initiative, we are collecting USB flash to hand out to individuals. There has been a very fast paced production of these devices, and many have been given out in commercial promotional activities. Thus, we expect that many of these devices have gone out of use or were never actually used, even though they are extremely useful!!

The recipients of USB flash collected will be teachers at secondary …

Jeg er netop vendt hjem fra en rejse til Malawi, hvor jeg d. 6. juni havde møde med Mzuzu Universitet om FAIRs kommende samarbejde med dem. I mødet deltog 7 personer fra universitetet samt en repræsentant fra den lokale administration af skolevæsenet i området.

Projektet går kort ud på at FAIR donerer et IT-center til Universitetet, så de kan optage flere IT-studerende. Samtidig etablerer vi i tæt samarbejde med universitetet …

Preparing for the next project

During June-July and depending on shipping conditions, FAIR Denmark will kick off the next ICT centre project in partnership with Mzuzu University located in the Northern region of Malawi. The aim of the project is to equip 8-10 secondary schools with an ICT centre and to extend the experience gathered from the first pilot project.

Not least, the project will establish a main centre at …

In October 2012, the first FAIR Denmark project in Malawi officially ended and a final evaluation trip took place. With a new and ambitious project in the making, we were eager to draw as many lessons as possible from the experiences of the last 18 months.

The overall impression was indeed positive: All five centers are being used and technical challenges have been overcome.

This being FAIR Denmark’s first project, …

Vi har modtaget en hilsen fra Robert Blake, en af de ældste og mest præstigefyldte secondary schools i Malawi, som netop har afholdt sin hidtil største årgang i faget Computer Studies. Under dette blog-indlæg er billeder fra skolens it-lokaler før og efter opsætningen af vores projekt.

Da vi ankom tilbage i april 2011, var Robert Blakes gamle computere ikke koblet til strøm, hvilket dog var forståeligt nok, da de var …

In April 2012, FAIR sent three volunteers for training in Linux at Mzuzu University, Malawi. Here is a report in their own words about the experience. We thank the guys for their continuing enthusiasm and hope for their work in the future.

23 to 27 April, the following Falai D. Mashart, Richard S. Batch, and Steve Macheka were sent to Mzuzu University to attend Linux training. This was the first …

One of the objectives of our trip has been to meet and engage the existing Linux crowd in Malawi, and after a really good meeting with Bennett Kankuzi of University of Malawi (The Polytechnic), we now see proof of the existence and energy of the Malawian FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community!

Bennett has previously been teaching Linux in Blantyre, and is already connecting with a big community online and …

Vores næste projekt i samarbejde med National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) skal ud til ca. 30 små biblioteker i hele Malawi. Hvert bibliotek får sit eget netværk, og vi er p.t. i den sidste testfase, inden vi overlade opsætningen til de lokale teknikere.

Men ud over en masse computernetværker, har vores tur handlet om at skabe nye menneskelige netværker, og vi har fået kontakt til en gruppe unge Linux-entutiaster. …