🚀 Kicking Off “Digital Impact Programme” Our Q1 Wins
In the first three months of our programme; we partnered with our first local secondary school, installed classroom Wi-Fi, delivered our first 5 laptops with another 5 on the way, hosted guest volunteers, and officially hired a Programme Manager!
A pretty good start and we’re excited to share the journey with you.
This whole thing started with us deciding to cut our ad spend for 2026 and instead re-invest it (and more) into a new programme to help improve digital literacy in local schools.
🏫 Getting Connected: Our First Partner School
We first came across the school last year when some of our resident nomads gave a careers talk.
I quickly realised that it was a bit rich talking to a classroom of students about online careers when they had more or less zero path to getting there.
The school has around 400 students, each year group has around three streams, each stream has 45 students!
That’s a long way from the average secondary school class size of around 24 students in Europe!
Hopefully, that gives you a bit of a feel for what we’re working with.
What we did in Q1
After a few meetings with the headmaster and a MoU for what we wanted to do we got to work.
Set-up the first IT lab at the school
- Installed Starlink and a managed WiFi network;
- Bought and set-up the first 6 laptops (funded by Skippers);
- First 24 students have completed an induction course thanks to nomad guest volunteers;
There are ±400 students in the school. We’re aiming initially to get 20 laptops and a teaching display/TV in the IT lab.
Funding & Budget
All in, so far not including salaries and accommodation the initial cost to launch was €2,254. This represents around 1 euro for every guest night booked in 2025.
The pilot was wholly funded by Skippers with a view to establishing long-term sustainable funding by early 2027.
Costs so far have been 43%: One-off/fixed costs and 57% on assets and licenses, Chromebook ±€200/unit inc. Edu license, cable lock, headphones (two per laptop w/headphone splitters).
- 6x Chromebooks + Cable locks + headphone splitters = €950
- 6x Google Education device licences (perpetual) = €260
- 12x headphones = €60
- Ubiquti Cloud Gateway + Access Point + PoE Switch + Starlink: €480
- 12 months Starlink connection: €504
🌍 Nomads Giving Back: Guest Volunteers in Action
The biggest asset at Skippers other than our team is our community and you have already been showing that in this programme :-).
Since our launch we’ve had two guest volunteers Sabrina and Kim, both got involved with developing content and starting initial inductions at the school.
Sabrina spearheaded the fundraising which helped bring in €515 which has paid for three more laptops for the IT Lab. Bringing the total number to 10.
Kim helped run sessions at the school to get students through their initial inductions.
🤝 Powered by You: Donations & What’s Arriving Next
We have a busy Q2 planned, key for us is adding more structure to the programme and ensuring that there’s a clear progression path to IT literacy for the students.
We will also be looking at events and how we can expand the programme.
GoFundme
€515 raised by Sabrina’s GoFundme which will cover 3 more laptops.
Macarena & Maria @ Distriktstandvården, Sweden
We also had a significant private donation to cover an additional laptop, TV and all the accessories and licenses for the four new laptops.
New equipment in IT Lab
In early Q2 we should have 9 laptops in the lab for students and one for teachers as well as a 50″ TV mounted on the wall to make it easier to run guided learning sessions.
This will mean we can run sessions with 18 students vs. 10, which will make a big difference to getting things moving.
👋 Growing the Impact Team
Probably the most significant thing we have managed to do this year is find an excellent programme co-ordinator in Joseph Mbagia. He has relocated from Nairobi to run the programme for the next year.
Joseph has been working on clean water development projects for the last five years and is finishing his MSc. Monitoring & Evaluation while working with us.
He will be putting together all the key assets for the programme as well as implementing rigorous impact monitoring so that we can understand to what extent we are making a difference.
🔮 What’s Next & How You Can Join Us
{Impacting nomads} We’re interested in hearing from any nomads who have worked on any local impact programmes for an idea we have for early next year.
{Chromebooks} If you’re booked at Skippers and are travelling from the UK in particular, please consider bringing a second hand Chromebook, they’re around £50 on eBay.
{Into the bush} In Q2 we’ll be looking at setting up some new experiences to get our guests out of Diani. Watch this space 🙂