Telkom Foundation takes one for the team
29 April 2015
Two days before the State of the Nation address, Telkom team was called on by the Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to donate the Telkom technology that forms part of the ICT Connected School Programme to a school in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
As part of this, the Foundation would have needed 21 touch screen laptops with the educational content already loaded, interactive whiteboard technology, an open view camera, projector and printer.
Telkom's suppliers said it was impossible as it usually takes three months to complete such a task. The Foundation team said it was possible and they started with the mammoth task at hand. With the Deputy President arriving at 12h00, the team had only two hours to put the whole set-up together. Although there were other companies there to showcase their technology, it was Telkom that the Deputy President came to first. And the team was ready!
The team presented the concept behind the Telkom Connected School Programme and exactly what it does. There were also demonstrations on how Telkom could provide educational solutions via technology at very reasonable costs.
Between the content and the technology, the Deputy President was very impressed with what's possible in the education space, especially for underprivileged schools. He even commented that he didn't know some of the things that Telkom demonstrated were even possible.
With one day's notice and two hours for set-up, the Telkom Foundation impressed the Deputy President and outfitted the school with the ICT programme valued at R300 000.
The team went above and beyond to pull this together, and all members played their part and ensured that there were no glitches. Even when the suppliers said it couldn't be done, the team knew it could. This is living the spirit of what the Foundation stands for and because of it one more school is connected to a better learning environment.
Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa in discussion with Monese Waga Pusa from Telkom Foundation
Minister of Communication the Deputy President and Miriam Altman from Telkom demonstarting the Telkom Connected School programme.
Facinated by the Connected School programme demonstration