Meet Luis Lopes, a 48-year old IT specialist. Apart from his three decade experience in all things IT, he also sports a long time off road hobby – participating in trials and expedition throughout Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, to name but a few.
Cool. Nothing impressive so far, he’s clearly not the only one that enjoys off road. So what’s so special about him? Well, he’s embarked on a most impressive two year project to educate African countries in the way of the IT department. Dropped your coffee yet?
His plan is to cover over 60.000 kilometers over a two year period, during which he will stop in most countries on the continent to teach teenagers and young adults how to use computers. His classes, apart from being well taught, will benefit from an efficient structuring, where pupils will have to follow four courses: using a computer, Office Tools, Using the Internet, Web Publishing. This package covers pretty much everything one would use a computer for, on a daily basis. And he’s doing it all for free.
He’ll be teaching with the aid of 10 laptops, taking a class of twenty students at a time. But until then, there’s still logistics to cover. His brave plan is to cover 30 different countries, in four big stages.
So, how can that work? Well it turns out Luis has been running a similar project in Portugal exclusively, for a while now. Based on its success, the decision was taken to expand the program to … let’s say … a continent.
The project is divided in 6 separate phases: Morocco, Guineea Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Egypt and Algeria. Each phase covers surrounding countries, dealing with schools, making contact with the people and sharing knowledge.
Finally, the truck. There was this saying I heard some time ago:
“If you want to see Africa, buy a Land Cruiser. If you want to meet the people, get a Land Rover”
Assuming that Luis has heard this saying too, he comformed to it quite nicely. The vehicle that’ll be taking him from one place to another is just as legendary as the continent itself: Toyota BJ – where it all started. We’ve told you the story so far but this won’t stop here. Every now and again, we’ll try to keep updates on Luis’ travels and his whereabouts.
For volunteer work, sponsorships or additional information, he can be looked up or contacted on his website, at www.expeditionafricaitlessons.org
Radu Tudoroiu
Radu Tudoroiu is a photographer and an editor for 4x4 Off Roads and other publications as well as an off-road enthusiast. Radu lives in Romania.
