Stories

The stories below were collected in October of this year, and selected by Camara staff. They’re really the best of the stories we have about the impact Camara is having from students and volunteers in Africa.

2. Kamara Nursery, Adama, Ethiopia (8-10 year olds)
Story told by Yisak Gezahegn (originally in Amharic)

Yisak: ‘People in Europe are able to communicate using the internet, but here we are not able to do that. I want the internet to communicate with people in other parts of the world…. I want to use the internet to communicate by voice like a telephone and by picture.’

Ciarán: ‘Who do you want to communicate with?’

Yisak (laughs): ‘People in Ireland….’

‘I want to know how to develop cartoons and animations with computers. Our teachers need to be trained so that they in turn can teach us this’.

Ciarán: ‘What do you want to do when you leave school?’

Yisak: ‘Become Minister of Health’

4. Star of the Sea, Mombasa, Kenya (8-13 year olds)

Star of the Sea is an all-girl’s public school based in Mombasa. Students were asked to identify how
they would use computers in their future careers.

Girl 1: ‘As a judge I won’t like to carry files everywhere so I store my information in a flash disk, then I can carry this.’

Girl 2: ‘I’d like to be a pharmacist so I’ll use the computer to find out about any kind of medicine.’

Girl 3: ‘As a scientist I’ll use the computer to share ideas with my fellows in other parts of the country so that I can learn from them and exchange knowledge.’

When asked to identify the most significant change that ICT education had made for them, the
students cited the following:

Girl 4: ‘It has made me more knowledgeable.’

Girl 5: ‘It has made me learn how to study information.’

Girl 6: ‘I can learn the history of some time ago like the adventurers and the African explorers.’

Girl 1: ‘When it’s the day we have lessons we don’t have to stay in class all the time, at least you can have some fun with the computers and that helps our medical (gestures at her head).’

Girl 7: ‘I’ve learned things in detail- like I have to come in and research things that I know, for instance things that I can’t see with my naked eye.’

7. Amina Farid, Mombasa Hub, Kenya

‘I finished my high school last year, 2008. I did computer studies in school, and after that I wanted to pursue further studies in computers. But since I was waiting to go to university, time was long until next year so I thought I couldn’t just stay like that doing nothing. Then I overheard about Camara… my teacher who used to teach me computer studies in school, they wanted computers from Camara. So he called me over and told me there’s a place called Camara they train students there but with a different operating system.’

‘So I was curious, I wanted to know more about it since I just knew about Windows. So I came here… the next day I registered and I was in Camara. I was taught many things that I didn’t even know. In school I was just taught how do use the Windows applications- Office, Excel, all that. But here I was even taught to use the command line which I didn’t even know about. I realised that Linux was so interesting. As I was here my friends told me about Mombasa Aviation and I thought I shall go for further studies in my computer knowledge. So I went there and I registered for a diploma in IT…. so next year I’ll be finished my diploma and I’ll go for a degree in IT.’

Ciarán: ‘Has it been beneficial, in terms of pursuing your studies, to work with Camara? Has that helped?

Amina: ‘Yeah actually right now I’m schooling and at the same time I still come to Camara. To be frank I just love Camara, I just can’t go away from it. It’s in my blood (laughs). I got to learn things that I didn’t even know. I’d get to learn these things, you know? And out there we won’t get to learn these things. Like take an example: maintenance, it’s very expensive to study maintenance….’

Ciarán: ‘What do you think you’ll do after you finish your studies?’

Amina: ‘Possibly a masters or something… but first get work at least to know how IT is being used out there’.

12. Mubende Infants School, Uganda- Class 2 (11/12 year olds)

When asked whether computers would help them in their future careers the students gave the following responses:

Boy 1: ‘I will use a computer to know my fellow musicians and their backgrounds so that I become an international musician’.

Boy 2: ‘I will use a computer to talk to my friends from outside countries’.

Girl 1: ‘I will use a computer to count money’.

Boy 3: ‘I will use a computer to carry out research’.

Boy 4: ‘I will use the computer to work out the mechanical problems in machines’.

Boy 5: ‘I will use the computer to see the past’.

Boy 6: ‘I will use the computer to know information which is taking place in outside countries’.

Students were then asked to identify the most significant change that access to ICT education had made to them personally:

Boy 7: ‘It has helped me to know more about the past’.

Boy 8: ‘It has helped me to get friends in outside countries’.

Boy 9: ‘It has helped me to make research about science’.

Boy 10: ‘It has helped me to know the background about Africa’.

Boy 11: ‘It has killed boredom’.

For more stories please check out our MSC Section