NGULUMBI - Children from the rural Ngulumbi village, outside Thohoyandou can now access computer facilities that they previously only dreamt of. Thanks to Mr Nkhumbuleni Ratshitanga (32), the man who introduced basic computer literacy to the village, the children are becoming more com-puter literate, so that they can also do programming work on their own.

Ratshitanga told Mirror: “Computer programming was initially done at urban and expensive institutions and poor parents could not afford to take their kids to town. I thought it was better to do something for my community, so that the children could be equipped with technological knowledge they will need in their everyday lives. I then decided to start a centre, IT – Today, for these rural kids. I needed to equip the rural community with special knowledge of advanced computer programming. Children are also taught other subjects, but the emphasis is on computer literacy and programming skills…”

Ratshitanga further told Mirror that he started the computer centre in 2002 with 13 kids and two computers. Today, the institution has 21 computers and 103 kids who no longer travel long distances for computer literacy and programming. The centre starts from Grade 0 to Grade 4 and there are plans to extend it up to Grade 12 in future.

Ratshitanga encourages other community members to assist in spreading computer education to the rural villages.

“Those kids in rural villages deserve the right to computer literacy, and it is also the duty of responsible community members to make sure that they receive proper education, regardless of their poor financial background.”