Chairman Report July 2006
We have had a successful year and I am very pleased with the progress made. We have carried out 3,883 individual tutorials which is an increase of 23% on the previous year.
Special thanks are due to our team of tutors for this achievement. They have worked hard. They are dedicated to the charity and do a lot to help students “out of school” acting as virtual volunteers. The freelance system suits everybody. It is flexible and cost effective and has got us to where we are today.
It is also always a pleasure to thank the charitable trusts and companies whose donations enable us to carry on. We are particularly grateful to the Henry Smith Charity, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Bridge House Trust, Hadley Trust, Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, IPE Charitable Trust, Sobell Foundation and many other donors.
Generating voluntary income is a seriously difficult and highly competitive job and we recognise how fortunate we are to have so much support from organisations who understand and appreciate the work of the charity. The provision of recycled refurbished computers to students is a growing part of our service and has opened the door to many people who never dreamed they could own and use a computer.
It is profoundly satisfying to see the individual progress made and makes up for some of the frustration we feel because we cannot grow fast enough. We have opened up branches in South Wales and Edinburgh and we are recruiting tutors for work in Kent and Sussex. We are determined to spread the service throughout the UK.
We are also developing an exciting new system of lesson delivery using free internet telephone technology and video links combined with a system called VNC which enable tutors to “see” and control the students screen from their own workplace. This will cut costs and enable short lessons to be delivered economically. We intend that this system will be up and running soon. We have now been in business for six years and given training to more than 1,400 people.
However we are still a very long way in realising our mission which is that every blind, deaf or physically disabled person who can benefit from using a computer can have a computer in their own home and the training to use it successfully. The government has many priorities. Getting disabled people computer literate is not one of them…..yet – but we are working on it.
A big thank you to the U Can Do I.T staff and to Roger Davison and Emma Duncalf from our accountants Davison & Shingleton and to all those many people we work with as partners who share our mission.
Anthony Wigram
