However, not all the students at the Hub have had the privilege of having access to a computer during their school or working career. For them to bridge the gap, from the most basic level of how to switch on a computer, to a level where they are able to navigate a sophisticated online learning platform like Canvas, is a daunting task. A task which might have involved hours, weeks and months of frustration and feelings of inadequacy, had it not been for the heaven-sent offer of assistance by Doro Wiederhold and Ad de Kok.

Doro, who hails from Berlin, has taught IT, mostly to adults, all over the world, for more than fifteen years. She was introduced to South Africa, as far back as 1995, when she was sent to Johannesburg for a teaching assignment by the Goethe Institute. On completion of this assignment, she was offered a trip to KZN. And that was the start of her love affair with the country.

Proverbial swallows, Doro and Ad spend at least six months of the year in their home at Arabella. Always keen to use their IT expertise to uplift the local community, they have in the past been involved with Sparkle Kids and also with various projects at the Qhayiya Secondary School in Zwelihle. They are fully aware of the tremendous challenges that these students face in
accessing the internet and the resultant lost learning opportunities. While Doro is away, students are assisted by Belinda Dunn, who is currently helping them to prepare for their online IT tests and will continue to assist them during contact sessions.

Doro’s years of teaching experience have enabled her to anticipate many of the problems the students tend to encounter – big and small. For example, knowing the pitfalls of logging in with a complicated password, she has taught the students, when logging into Canvas, to first type their passwords in the username-field (where you can see the characters) and then copy and paste these into the password-field (where the characters are masked). This has saved them a lot of time and energy.

Doro and Ad feel there is so much more that they can do. Ideally, they would like to teach the students how to work with the basic computer programs so that they are able to access, create, store, retrieve and share all kinds of information.

However, a big challenge is getting access to the students who are under huge time constraints because of their very full and demanding first-year programme and their very busy lives.

One way of getting around this problem is to encourage the students to use the computers at the Hub to work on their assignments. Here they have free wi-fi, a quiet, safe space to work in and Doro and Ad at hand to answer all their IT queries.

Sadly, we have all felt the first autumn chill in the air, which means that Doro and Ad will soon be leaving the Overberg for warmer climes. They plan to return in October. However, until then, they wish to reassure their students that they will be available via WhatsApp or email to answer any software queries they might have. In the short time that they have been involved at the Hub, their patient and engaging style of teaching has created a warm and comfortable space for effective learning to take place. They will be sorely missed.