The Gift of Computer | Helping the Kids Extend Their Learning

Today, we were able to give a few of our kids in Code Chautari classes at Jana Uddhar Secondary School a computer set and/or accessories. This is awesome! 

It all started a while back when Jagriti Ghimire (my friend) messaged me saying she wanted to donate to Code Chautari. Jagriti was excited about Code Chautari’s work. She wanted to be a part of Code Chautari by supporting the participating kids in any way possible. 

We started thinking about how the fund could be used to support kids. We wanted it to be something closely related to our classes and what we believed in. This is when I had an idea of donating a computer. 

Over the past year and a half, we have been delivering our computer literacy and programming classes for these kids. Honestly, they have been doing great. These kids are awesome! Few of them are still continuing with our programming classes with utmost passion and dedication. They have learnt quite a lot and have shown huge potential in the programming related fields. We never tell them they ‘should’ join an IT related field. That is not what we believe. But if they were to pursue higher studies in this field, we already see them excelling.

However, there has been one big challenge for these kids- no computer at home. Imagine learning about this new coding skill for an hour and not getting to practice when they get back home. They couldn’t revise the concepts they learnt in class. They couldn’t work more on the projects they completed in class. How awesome would it be if they had a computer to extend their learning at home? 

For me, this tweet by Saugat sums up why having a personal computer is important for the kids.

“Makes me happy that my friend is working towards education and computer literacy for these kids. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t get exposure to computers early in my life. I hope these kids have a similar opportunity.” (src)

I got access to a computer very late in my life. However, it has helped me in no ways the school, college and university could ever help me. All the skills that I currently have are all thanks to computers and the internet. Access to computers can bring about that global exposure to a lot of open information, knowledge and skills quicker. Having the opportunity to use computers and digital tools can ensure that the kids have skills that will help them in higher studies and in future jobs.

We wanted the kids to dive more into the knowledge and skills that they gain in our classes. We wanted them to be the mentor for their friends, siblings and family members at home or in the community. We wanted the participating kids in Code Chautari classes to spread their skills to other people who we couldn’t impact directly. Yes, the ripple effect! 

That’s why we intended to support kids with a desktop computer set.  We decided to support as many kids as we could based on how much funds we could collect. And I started a small fundraiser campaign. This was a very closed and personal campaign. I didn’t want to make it an open fundraiser this time. 

I asked a few of my very close friends and former colleagues for support. They agreed. A friend tweeted about this on Twitter. And that’s how I connected with two more amazing people, who themselves were software developers and wanted to contribute to my campaign. Another friend and former colleague reached out to his university friends and collected funds. And that’s how through my limited circle, in a month, we collected enough funds to support 8 kids. 

This has been all possible because of the following amazing people. We are extremely grateful to them. Thanks to all of you for believing in us. Thanks for supporting in extending the learning of these kids. Thanks for helping these kids’ future by opening up a path to exposure and opportunities. 

List of supporters (in order of donations received)

  • Jagriti Ghimire
  • Hemanta Ale
  • Rikesh Karki and Romi Giri
  • Saugat Acharya
  • Raju Dawadi
  • Milap Neupane
  • Anita Sharma
  • Nirdosh Gautam
  • Shisir Bhattarai and Nisha Dhakal
  • Ganesh Sharma
  • Pravesh Chand 
  • Irfan Khan
  • Susan Joshi
  • Sushmita Gurung
  • Sajani Shrestha
  • Nawang Sherpa
  • Amrit Puri

And we are also very thankful to Manoj Pandey and the Triad International team for providing the computers and accessories at a very minimal cost.