Train company’s computers change lives for hundreds of Malawian children

Children at Chambala Community Day Secondary School in central Malawi have begun to learn computer skills, after the arrival of equipment donated by train company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).

For the past three years, GTR has been giving its redundant hardware to IT and educational charity The Turing Trust. The Trust reconditions the equipment at its specialist workshops through a fully data-secure process, loads new software, and distributes the items to UK and overseas schools and charities who are otherwise unable to afford IT equipment.

GTR’s latest batch of 100 PCs, 320 monitors and 70 keyboard-mouse sets is now giving over 500 students at the school the opportunity to learn digital skills for the first time.

Two teachers at Chambala have also been trained in how to teach digital skills to support the pupils. The school has also received a donation of networking equipment - enabling the Trust to install an ‘e-library’, an offline e-learning system.

Over the three years, GTR has donated a further 400 PCs and 200 tablets.

William Bellinger-Smith, of The Turing Trust, said: “We've been improving this system with new materials aligned to the Malawian curriculum. GTR's support has had a fantastic impact."

Aidan Shanahan, GTR’s Head of IT, said: “We’re replacing this kit because it no longer supports the latest software we need to use, but it’s all potentially invaluable for charities and schools who can’t afford the IT equipment they need.

“We’re delighted to be working with The Turing Trust to make such a life-changing difference for so many people, by giving the equipment a second life. The demand for refurbished computers is so high that even the hundreds of units we’re donating is a drop in the ocean, so we hope other organisations are encouraged to work with the Trust so their redundant equipment can be re-used securely with such lasting and valuable impact.”

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Notes to editors

About The Turing Trust

The Trust, named after its founder Alan Turing and set up by his family, gives new life to technology, and provides quality training and technology to children and young people in the UK and Africa.

The Turing Trust works with schools in the UK and rural Malawi, both of which are impacted by technology, albeit in different ways.