Digital Learning – Leave Nobody Behind

We know this for sure: one person can move through the world having a profound effect on everyone else they encounter, who then affect everyone they encounter, and so on.

Jack Growden is that kind of guy. In 2017, Jack was 20 years old when he decided to leave his personal laptop with the students of a school in Papua New Guinea, promising to get more for them. He made good on that promise the next year, essentially creating the first primary school computer lab in PNG. Eight computer labs later, the work has expanded into a volunteer-based-and-youth-led organization that’s already brought digital skills to thousands of students.

Jack says some of the students walk three hours over difficult terrain to get to school. They’re excited by the idea of learning digital skills and gaining employment possibilities which their parents and older siblings never had the chance to access. The computer labs are led by teachers who guide the delivery of a proven curriculum. Jack has big dreams– he pictures digitizing the entire education sector across Papua New Guinea.

Our AWB grant is enough to buy another ten professionally refurbished laptops that will be an upgrade for some of the early labs.

We never thought of this, but imagine an engineer in PNG trying to get a job with one of the big mining companies. Their resumes are often handwritten, signaling they lack access to crucial digital tools. And when gender inequality is rampant, equipping young women with digital experience gives them a chance to try for employment away from the subsistence farming that might otherwise be their only option.

Learn more about Jack and LiteHaus International here, and remember that every one of us can affect so many others. Kindness is contagious too, you know?