General News of Friday, 26 March 2004

Source: Komo

Seattle Computers To Help Children In Ghana

SEATTLE - Some students at Seattle's Garfield High School are helping close the digital divide.

They're rebuilding computers and creating a computer network not for their own school, but for a school in Ghana.

They're part of Garfield's Technology Academy. Founded in 1998, the academy was created to bring needed technology to underdeveloped communities.

"We hope to bring computers and technology throughout the world," explained Pranoti Hiremath, a freshman at Garfield.

At the beginning of next month, eight Garfield H.S. students will travel to Ghana to set up the computers at a high school there. They've already shipped 120 computers to Ghana.

The used computers were donated from Seattle and Eastside schools.

"We're very excited", says Julia Marks, a junior.

Students from Garfield's Tech Academy have travelled to Mexico and Mozambique, Poland and India. Their next stop Ghana.

Two weeks of teaching and inspiring kids their age who don't know the first thing about a mouse, who've never e-mailed anyone.

That's about to change.