Director of NCI, Falklands veteran Andy Trish returns bearing Computer gifts.

02/02/2014

On Wednesday 5th Feb, Andy Trish is heading off from Cornwall on what will be over a 28 hour journey through RAF Brize Norton, to the Ascencion Islands and finally on to the Falkland Islands. a total of 19 hours flying.

It has been 31 years since the UK sent a Task Force 8000 miles into the South Atlantic to save the people living on the islands from an Argentine invasion. The people on the islands and all the members of the Task Force will never forget 1982 and how it changed the lives for so many in all sorts of ways.

Andy Trish, certainly hasn’t forgotten and is in constant contact with many of the Armed Forces, and Civilians who took their part in recovering the Islands having sailed down there himself on the Flagship HMS Hermes alongside his brother on HMS Antelope and his cousin on HMS Broadsword.

With the help of The South Atlantic Medal Association 1982 (SAMA 82) and the Falklands Veterans Foundation (FVF) Andy was lucky enough to be able to return to the islands in April 2012 to meet the people who have influenced a good proportion of his life, the civilians for whom the Task Force went down to save. On his tours of the battlefields and memorials he also went to visit some of the schools out in Camp (any settlement that is away from Stanley, the main town), where he saw for himself how the children live and learn. Currently there are 286 primary and junior schools children and 170 secondary school pupils.

It was the children’s attitude, friendliness and total resolve to do well in their education no matter what their circumstances that has resulted in a 2^nd visit in February 2014, only this time he is bringing gifts.

On their way to the Islands are enough HP laptops to replace all the ageing computers in all of the 4 schools in camp as well as a HP laptop per child for those in the remote parts of the islands that have a roaming teacher. There are also some surprise gifts on their way that will help the children with their studying and free time.

Having spoken with the Head Teacher, Karen Steen, another need on the islands was for a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so the children across all the schools had an equal opportunity to interact with their education. eSchools, a leading provider of VLE’s in the UK have stepped in to transform the software environment for the children for years to come and will remotely train all the staff. http://www.eschools.co.uk

The next request was for ideas on how to improve their internet access and communication across the islands which are 12,200 km2 and have a population of less than 3000. If you can help, or know someone who can, the difference you can make for all of the islanders would be incredible.

The fundraising efforts carried out by NCI Technologies in 2013 resulted in over £150,000 being raised and spent solely on schools in the UK, the Falkland Islands project being close to Andy’s heart, will continue for the foreseeable future with a further £110,000 being committed so far in 2014 for UK schools.

The response from companies willing to help has been outstanding. If you are a company that would like to get involved in supporting the futures of the children on the islands or the children of the schools in UK mainland then please contact Andy with how you can assist.

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