Ntchuwa Primary School, in Salima District, Malawi, can now begin teaching IT skills to around 500 students a year through its new computer lab, thanks to funding provided by Cardiff-based not-for-profit, Power2Africa (P2A), which is part of the Amber Enterprises Group.

Malawi is among the least electrified countries in the world, with only around 11% of its population having access to electricity. While 42% of those in urban areas have the use of electricity, just 4% in Malawi’s rural communities do.*

And it's in the rural Salima District that The Turing Trust, and Malawi-based Centre for Youth and Development, have been working on an ambitious project that will see tablets and a projector – all powered by solar energy – installed at a school that is crucial to the education of the local communities’ young people.

The £6,500 IT lab will provide students with 20 tablet computers, a projector, an intranet network, teacher training and a long-term maintenance plan to ensure the facility is sustainable into the future.

Nick Proctor, founder and CEO of the Amber Enterprises Group, said,

“This IT lab, over its lifetime, will enable many thousands of students to learn the vital IT skills that they’ll need if they wish to attend university in Malawi. And by working with our local partners – The Turing Trust and Centre for Youth and Development – we can ensure that this project will be supported in the long-run with locally-available skills, helping to put both technical knowledge and sustainability at the heart of the community.”

This project is the second to be completed by P2A in Malawi, following last October’s successfully-installed computer lab at Euthini Secondary School. P2A’s funded projects have seen more than £94,000 invested in community projects across Africa.

James Turing, founder, Turing Trust, said,

“The installation of this solar-powered IT lab at Ntchuwa Primary School will be truly transformational for hundreds of students. For the first time, students will be able to use digital resources to support their learning with local e-learning content. This project is the first time that we have been able to deliver digital learning in off-grid environments using these technologies and will be a stepping-stone enabling us to support more communities with improved solutions in the future. We are extremely grateful to P2A and the corporate members for making this project possible and making a world of digital learning possible at Ntchuwa Primary School.”

For more information on Power2Africa, and how you can get involved, visit: https://www.power2africa.org/