- Gondwana Cañon Park/ News



		News 2005 News 12.09.05

Computers from Germany at the Canyon - 12.09.05
Six pre-owned computers, complete with keyboard, mouse and wiring, and four monitors were installed in the accommodation facilities of the park at the Fish River Canyon in southern Namibia last weekend. The equipment was delivered from Germany. Another two monitors were added from the park's own resources. "Now we have computers at Cañon Lodge, the Village and the Roadhouse, accessible for everyone, and staffers will be trained in how to use them", explains Human Resource Manager Sonia Noirfalise-Corsini. "Furthermore, the managers of the bar, the kitchen or the self-sufficiency centre can save their inventory lists on disc or memory-stick and update them regularly."

The PCs and monitors are part of a donation arranged by Uwe Hoffmann in Dresden, Germany. The idea materialised last year when Hoffmann was on holiday in Namibia and heard from tour guide Rainer Iben (Kowas Safaris) about aid projects supported by the German group 'Hilfe für Namibia e.V.' (Peine/Röhrse near Hanover).
Since Hoffmann’s company was in the process of having new PCs installed he saw to it that the discarded ones - 56 PCs (Pentium
2 and 3) and about 40 monitors – were taken to Hanover where they were loaded into a container

Tour guide Rainer Iben (left) presents the donated computers to the Managing Director of Gondwana, Mannfred Goldbeck.

together with other goods for Namibia. At N$ 2,000 per computer and N$ 500 per monitor the total value of the donation amounts to more than N$ 130,000, excluding the transport cost from Hanover to Namibia which shipping agents estimate at N$ 9,000.

Rainer Iben, himself a member of the non-profit association 'Hilfe für Namibia', is in charge of distributing the PCs. "They are in excellent working condition", he beams. "This donation is intended to further the education of previously disadvantaged Namibians." 15 PCs were given to Maltahöhe High School and 20 to Otjikondo Private School, between Outjo and Kamanjab. In Gondwana Cañon Park the computers are most welcome, too, as a boost to the extensive training programme for the staff.


		- For more on the training programme see: - GDC/Gondwana Concept/Training.