ONJA Update

Global Grant

Thank you to the following key Rotarians, Districts and Clubs that have contributed to the crucial Rotary Global Grant that will fund operations for this year and push the project into the self-funding stage. 

We are just so grateful to you all for your support and backing. 

The application now sits with the Rotary Foundation for approval. It seems that the Covid-19 pandemic may increase the turnaround time however are hoping it wont be much longer now. 

Become a writing mentor!

I am very excited to announce a super cool way for you to connect with and assist students:

Students are looking forward to becoming qualified web developers and slipping into distributed teams. With future colleagues dotted around the globe students will call heavily on their verbal and written English skills. 

We are now looking for writing mentors to help students hone their literary abilities. 

As a writing mentor you can assist by:

Note that you don't need to be a gifted writer yourself. So long as you have a native (or close) control of the English language, we would love to have your help. Ideally this will last until the end of this year.

Please contact Mitantsoa (mitantsoa@onja.org) if you would like to become a writing mentor or have any questions. 

Coding Course

As always, students are learning at a rapid rate. Sitting in class now, it's almost unthinkable that just a few months ago many couldn't use a computer: to the untrained eye they already look like pros, zipping between windows of code, forums, and website designs. 

Students recently completed a project which involved building an instructional site to help others learn HTML. HTML is the backbone of the internet. It's nothing showy (hence the skeletal looking pages) but a strong understanding is key to becoming a web developer. Some example projects are linked below: 

The class has now moved on to CSS, which adds colour and design to web pages.

It's also very encouraging to see that students become more and more comfortable with English and are starting to speak very well. 

Covid-19

Any kind of communication would not be complete without a mention to this pandemic. As for so many, it is making things difficult for us but fortunately we can continue and believe this is the best option all around. 

We are fortunate to have such a committed team. Spare a thought appreciation for Loïc and Shaun, our talented coding lecturers, from New Zealand and Belguim, who chose to stay on amid the tough times. 

The pandemic is in it's early stages in Madagascar, however we expect that the nation faces some tough months ahead.