Couple spend honeymoon volunteering in Lesotho

Volunteering in a Third World country isn"t exactly the choice of most couples for their honeymoon, but that is exactly what a Laytown couple have opted for. Honeymooners Stephen Sheridan and Alicen Tracey are among 83 volunteers who left Dublin on Saturday to teach computer skills in Africa for four weeks. Stephen and Alicen will be helping teachers in Lesotho with their computer skills for the next month. They are among 83 volunteers who will teach basic and advanced ICT computer skills to teachers in schools in seven countries in Africa for four weeks. The volunteers, who come from a range of backgrounds, including IT, teachers and students, will be teaching in schools in Kenya, Ethiopa, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Lesotho and Zambia for the The Camara Group charity. School teacher Alicen (34) and wedding photographer Stephen (37) opted to do this for their honeymoon. Alicen said: 'Stephen wanted to go to Africa on our honeymoon, and then we decided if we were going, we should experience the real Africa, and so we looked at opportunities to volunteer. Camara was the perfect fit for us, teaching something practical and giving us a real challenge while we are there. We are really looking forward to our month teaching in Lesotho.' Also among the volunteers is Mary Earle from Kells, who is returning for the second year. This year she has opted for Zambia. 'I went last year to Rwanda, and it was an amazing experience, teaching computer skills to teachers and schoolkids in sometimes very out of the way locations. I"d like to thank everyone who have been so supportive of my fundraising both years,' she said. Camara is an Irish-based registered charity, based in Dublin"s Digital Hub, which equips schools in Africa with refurbished computers, educational software and IT training. Camara recently celebrated sending out its 10,000 computer to a school in Tanzania. Cormac Lynch, CEO of Camara, said: 'It is so important to provide computer skills for the teachers of the schools who have Camara"s refurbished computers. Our teachers will spend a month giving courses from basic computer skills to advanced networking. Each computer can be of major benefit to 200 students, but only if there is good transfer of teaching knowledge to the teachers in the first place.' Camara takes in old computers that would otherwise be sent for recyling, securely wipes the hard drive and tracks, cleans and upgrades the computers so that they will run an operating system reliably and have a long second lease of life in a school in Africa. Camara"s computers come from several large and medium-sized companies, which include PWC, KBC Bank, ESB and the Department of Finance.