Barry has recently returned from Songea in Tanzania, where he spent a month teaching IT and Maths at the De Paul School run by the Vincentian Fathers. As well as teaching Maths to Secondary School exam classes, Barry managed an incredible amount of IT lessons putting 200 students through Microsoft Excel, 100 Students through Word, and 10 exam class students through Advanced Excel, Word and PowerPoint. All his training materials have been uploaded onto a shared drive and a new group of volunteers as well as teachers were trained up.

Barry also did workshops with teachers on using AI in teaching and developed a website for the school. He has plans to create a new IT suite for the school so they can continue learning technology skills that are vital individually for students but also collectively for the country. It wasn’t all work and Barry managed visits to Lake Nyasa and spent a weekend in a local village. Barry said of his experience –

“Maybe just maybe it is time to give a bit back. You never know how much you know and have learned in life. Information is amazing because you can share most of it and still have it all. Education through technology will be a great help-up for developing countries, and in the words of Sir Bob Geldof, one small person can make a difference. Or maybe it is for the adventure and opening doors to new cultures, new people (with their vision and dreams), for those A-ha moments when it clicks for a student or affirmation of the simple things. Thanks to everyone along the way.”

Barry kept a blog of his volunteer placement, which can be accessed here.