ENOUGH WORDS - LET US PUT 20 LAPTOPS INTO THEIR HANDS!
For almost three months, a GoFundMe campaign has been asking for something remarkably modest: help the children of Kibogoji Experiential Learning School acquire their first 20 laptops.
The target is US$10,000.
So far, approximately US$870 has been raised.
US$870 is not nothing. Every dollar represents somebody who read the appeal and decided that sympathy alone was not enough.
But ZNK must today say something uncomfortable to many of you, our readers!
We can do much better than this.
More than 5,000 of Tanzanians read ZNK and watch its sister YouTube channel regularly (https://www.youtube.com/@zanzibarnikwetu1998?sub_confirmation=1). If just 5,000 people contributed US$2 each, that alone would produce:
US$10,000.
Twenty laptops.
A small computer facility.
And, for many of these children, the first opportunity in their lives to place their own hands on a laptop keyboard.
Think about that brother/sister!
For many of us in the diaspora, US$2 disappears without thought. It may not even buy a cup of coffee anymore. Yet the same US$2, multiplied by thousands of us acting together, could open an entirely new world to children in rural Tanzania.
And this is where ZNK wants to be deliberately uncomfortable to you all!
We Tanzanians are very good at talking.
We discuss development.
We discuss education.
We discuss technology.
We discuss Africa's future.
We discuss Dual Citizenship and Special Status.
We discuss the future of Tanzania and even the call for an independent Tanganyika.
We debate history, leadership, independence, sovereignty and what kind of country the next generation should inherit.
Wonderful!
But who exactly is this next generation whose future occupies so much of our conversation?
Look at the photograph above.
There they are!
Those children are not theoretical.
They are not tomorrow's political slogan.
They are sitting in classrooms today.
Whatever our political position may be, however, one fact should unite us all: the children who will inherit that future need the tools to prepare for it today. We cannot argue passionately about the country our children should inherit while hesitating to contribute even US$2 towards the education of the very children who will one day be expected to build, lead and carry that country forward.
And while children elsewhere are learning to code, researching online, experimenting with artificial intelligence and becoming comfortable with digital technology from an early age, ours are still waiting for their first meaningful encounter with a computer.
We cannot spend years talking about the Tanzania we want tomorrow while refusing to invest a few dollars in the children who will have to build it.
Patriotism cannot live on words alone!
Whatever name we prefer for our country, and whatever vision we hold for its future, one principle should be crystal clear in our minds:
An educated child is an investment in the nation.
If we expect today's children one day to become our doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists, entrepreneurs and leaders, then we cannot wait until they are adults before providing them with the tools their generation requires.
And we certainly cannot leave this responsibility only to a handful of generous individuals like Amanambu, Redo, Fundi, Saeedia, Kamugisha, Kazilo and three anonymous ones.
That is not collective action.
That is a few people carrying a burden that thousands of us could make almost weightless.
ZNK is therefore asking its readers something very simple.
Not US$100.
Not US$50.
Not even US$20.
START WITH US$2.
If you can afford more, give more.
If US$2 is what you can afford, give US$2.
But please do not read this article, nod your head, say “these children deserve help,” and then continue scrolling.
That is exactly the habit we are challenging today!
Dr. Shaaban Fundi wrote in the original appeal:
“A child in rural Tanzania has the same dreams as a child in New York, London, or Toronto. The difference is opportunity.”
The laptops will not make every child a scientist.
They will not guarantee that every pupil becomes an engineer.
But they will remove one unnecessary barrier.
They will allow these children to explore.
To type.
To research.
To discover.
To make mistakes.
To learn.
And perhaps, somewhere among those children sitting before us, there is a programmer, researcher, doctor, engineer or entrepreneur whose journey simply needs somebody to put the first computer within his/her reach.
The target is US$10,000.
We already have approximately US$870.
Let us stop admiring the problem and start solving it!
Skip one little luxury.
Give US$2.
Give US$5.
Give US$10.
Give whatever little you can afford!
Then send the appeal to somebody else.
Twenty laptops should not be beyond the collective strength of thousands of Tanzanians scattered across Canada, America, Britain, Europe, Tanzania and elsewhere.
The children are ready.
The GoFundMe is still open.
Are we?
LET US TURN OUR WORDS INTO 20 LAPTOPS!
/ZNK
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