Most of us have relied on our devices and internet connections to get us through the last couple of years. Maybe you’ve been stuck self-isolating with nothing to do other than ‘complete’ Netflix, or you’ve relied on teachers performing from their front rooms to keep your kids in education, or you’ve been doing your entire job over Zoom. But what would we have done if we hadn’t had those resources at our disposal?

Nursing schools across Kenya and Malawi have been working hard to provide remote learning opportunities for frontline medical staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Wisenet (a division of Adapt IT) partnered with the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF) to provide online courses across a group of schools that host 2500 nursing and midwifery students.

Schools reaching out

While the schools reported great success with the new online learning platform — faculty could create their own course content and customise it for different student groups — it became apparent that some learners didn’t have the hardware they needed to learn at home. The online learning opportunities were there, but the students couldn’t access them.

A donation of Raspberry Pi 400 computers from Wisenet at the end of last year meant that these learners could access remote classes. The international nursing curriculum is also now at their fingertips, and they can interact in online forums with tutors and other students.

Think you can help?

If you are interested in helping schools like these with access to online learning, you can contact MBF at hello@mbf.net.

We’ve seen a lot of people getting a Raspberry Pi 400 as a home learning or working device over the last couple of years, and we saw a lot of the same questions coming up as people were trying to get started with their new computers. So we put together a handy FAQ to help you with basics like downloading Raspberry Pi OS, setting up things like Skype and Zoom, and printing.