Photo: courtesy

Caffe (Computers Are Free for Everyone) is an NGO that strives to provide technology based educational opportunities to the most underprivileged children of our society. How this organisation was formed, is an inspirational story. In 2004, Luke Doyle, a high school teacher from the UK was sent to Bangladesh by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) to help with the educational sector of our country. He started working in an NGO in Sylhet, where he met a child who changed the course of his future. “Kobir Uddin was the son of a farmer working with the same NGO,” says Luke. “He was eleven years old when his father brought him to our cafeteria where I was working on my laptop. He was fascinated by the computer, and despite our language barrier I wanted to teach him how to use it. In a way he was the first CAFFE student before any of it was thought of, he showed me that this could be a powerful thing.”
In 2010, when Luke came back for a second stint in Bangladesh, he decided to help more children like Kobir by giving them an opportunity to learn to use and have access to modern technology. Kobir, who was now a student of A'Levels in Dhaka, was more than willing to help. When CAFFE (funded in the UK) held its first computer lesson in 2011 they had four computers, twelve students and one teacher. They now have over 200 students, fourteen laptops, thirteen tablets and five teachers.
CAFFE focuses on three areas, primary school, vocational training and curriculum development. Their target is to promote critical thinking, creativity and team work.  They have recently introduced a filmmaking course where students attended a movie making workshop with a professional director. Through this course they are taught to use filming equipment, come up with ideas for scripts and film their own movies.
“The youngest students start on Paint,” says Luke. “We've also got stop motion animation, engineering, a game design workshop, and then we move them on to some simple coding, then eventually into actual coding. We've got teenagers who have made some apps, they're on Google Play, in the CAFFE app store. The older ones are doing Photoshop and Illustrator, and they've been working on a project to design a logo for a real company, so what we're really aiming for, is to give them real life experiences.”

Photo: Shourove Chowdhury

The students come in droves from the surrounding slum areas of Nurerchala, where the NGO is located. “Nowadays people from all walks of life understand the importance of education,” says Kobir, “We want to help our students find employment eventually,” says Luke. “They're still mostly in school or college; they may not go to university and get a degree, so it depends on whether the experience they have gained here can count. We are trying to get them internships for this summer through our links with various businesses.”
CAFFE aims to teach as many students as possible in hope that they too will contribute to the learning process by spreading their knowledge. “We can provide them with curriculum material and training to do so. We also hope to share our curriculum ideas with local schools. We have developed learning apps which will help children all over the country with basic education,” says Kobir.
 To learn more please visit www.caffebd.org