Monday February 5th 2024
In the picture from left to right are: Midlothian Council’s Cabinet Member for sustainability Councillor Dianne Alexander, the council’s Digital Client Services Manager Marco Reece-Heal, Turing Trust Operations Supervisor Sam Welch and Turing Trust Donations Co-ordinator Will Bellinger-Smith.
Children in schools in Malawi are to benefit from 122 projectors donated by Midlothian Council.
Midlothian Council’s Cabinet Member for sustainability, Councillor Dianne Alexander handed over the first of the kits to the Loanhead-based Turing Trust on Monday.
She said: “The projectors have been used in classrooms across Midlothian but are now surplus to requirements because we’ve recently upgraded audio-visual equipment as part of the Equipped for Learning Project.
“There’s plenty of life left in them, so it’s great the trust set up by Alan Turing’s family can distribute the kits to now help educate pupils across Malawi in Southern Africa.”
Regarded as the father of modern computing, Alan Turing, whose work to crack the German army’s encrypted communications code helped end the Second World War, saw IT as a tool for solving great challenges.
Set up in his honour, the trust refurbishes IT equipment and gives it to those most in need. In the last 13 years it has given more than 169,000 students across Africa, Asia and the UK access to computers.
Turing Trust Donations Co-ordinator Will Bellinger-Smith said: “Working with Midlothian Council is an exciting opportunity to align our shared commitment to sustainability and education. This donation of projectors is a prime example of how local collaboration can maximise the impact of IT equipment that would otherwise be redundant. We’re thrilled to give these projectors a new lease of life in Malawi, where they’ll continue to deliver a world of learning and possibilities for so many children.”
The council’s Equipped for Learning Project is a £10.5 million initiative to give more than 14,000 Midlothian pupils a free iPad or Google Chromebook.
It’s the most comprehensive digital learning project of its kind in Scotland to date, supporting all pupils from primary one to S6 secondary pupils.
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