GMB, a Dutch civil engineering company, has promised to donate 30 used but well maintained laptops to the air quality laboratory of Arba Minch University through their “Sociaal Fonds GMB“.
My students (undergraduate Water Supply and Environmental Engineering) have hardly any exposure to computers. The few computer classes they take are plagued by electrical outages and absent computer lab assistants. I saw this in their work in the previous two air quality courses. For typing a few sentences or making one graph in Excel, students spend hours, often frustrated about the inability to get the result they want. The few students who can afford their own laptop have considerably better computer skills, simply because they are exposed more.
When the laptops will arrive, I will include Excel lab classes in my course, and lend laptops to (groups of) students in need of a laptop. This gift of GMB leads to more practically educated water engineers, which will contribute in a more efficient way to Ethiopia’s environment and infrastructure.