 Mae bwysnys yn y ddenyn i ddewidio i m formulas 15094 yn y nameau y Llywodraeth yn ymgaredd MacDonald a'u bodultr Gwrdd Cwrd bylernol yn gynhwysu targiadau. Mae'r ddenyn ni wedi gynghwysu wedi gwneud o unrhyw cais o'u cwestiynau i ddewidig o'u ddenyn cwrs yn cymryd i gael iawn gan ddenyn, ac iawn gynghwysu eich ddewid yn gwrdd Gwrdd bylernol yn y ddenyn. Mae wirio i bethio gyda'r ddewid ac mae yn yn sicr beithio gyda digon yn gwrdd gwrdd yma gweithio roeddiolion i darllen iawn i cael ei ddechrau i'r cyflwyffydd yn gweithredu'r Autory Club. Ysgrifennid o ffordd gwneud y ddisodó'r cynnig o fynd i gael i ddwyddwyd clywb yn gyffin, rydyn ni'n hynny gyda'r Roeddi Creg pwysig Ffostestaen, bydd y dyma ei rydyn nhw fwy o gw grammar ar gyfer dda'r Autory Club heddiw, oedd y ffrif yng ngyllpridd i ddweud o heddiw i yng nghyrch rhaglwmp oed yn 8,000 mae am gwybod i mewn melynau. I want to take the opportunity to welcome the members of the Curry and Baleno Rotary Club who are in the gallery tonight to the Scottish Parliament. Rotary International through the Rotary Club of Curry and Baleno has collaborated with the Turing Trust, based here in Edinburgh, run by the family of Alan Turing, wartime code breaker and founder of modern computer science. The trust ensures that Alan Turing's name and its mission is to empower disadvantaged communities using information technology-enabled learning. Since its establishment in 2009 the charity has been delivering moreanov WTIC on primary, junior high schools and Ganner. They have also been working ever since 2015 to provide technology-enabled education in schools in the northern region of Malawi. Over the past six years, the trust that has been supported by the Rotary Club has shipped more than 4,200 second-hand PCs to schools in Ghana, Malawi and other African countries. Every PC that has been put into a school in Africa has been wiped, repaired and loaded with off-line educational resources, with that work being done by a fantastic team of dedicated volunteers in Edinburgh. The project has been supported by the Scottish Government's small grants programme, who awarded the Turing Trust £60,000 to support their work in bringing essential learning resources to rural communities across sub-Sahara, Africa. Each PC that can be re-used has a tremendous impact in the Malawi and classrooms, and so far it has assisted over 41,000 students to gain vital digital literacy skills. In addition, more than 450 teachers have gained skills in basic computer maintenance and are using computers to support their teaching. On top of that, there is also an environmental benefit. None of the ICT equipment ends up in landfill and is appropriately recycled at the end of life, both here in Scotland and in Africa. By re-using old PCs, the trust has had a tremendous environmental impact of setting to date 2,058 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent of planting over 5,000 trees. However, not all communities in Malawi are connected to the electricity grid, and to provide computer facilities for those schools required an innovative solution. The Turing Trust design team, comprised of four retiring professionals, Ian Campbell, Andrew Clarke, Jim Douglas and John Wilson, who are all members of the Currie Ballerno Rotary Club, found a solution in the SolarBerry. The SolarBerry is a solar-powered computer lab in classrooms that uses low-energy Raspberry Pi computers, designed for off-grid communities and housed in a repurposed shipping container. The prototype was delivered in April of last year to Choma, where a formal ceremony took place in June when it was officially handed over to the local community. It is designed for use by the whole community, not just the school, as it can be used for a whole range of activities from hosting movie nights to adult IT classes. The SolarBerry can also be used to generate income by selling its excess energy. It uses the energy that it generates to recharge small electrical goods, like phones and lamps, at a fracture of the cost and environmental damage of petrol generators. That has had a huge impact on the day-to-day life of the community, as members will no longer have to walk 10 miles to charge their phone. The SolarBerry journey starts back in Scotland, where the shipping container is filled with computer equipment for distribution to schools in Malawi. Once empty, the shipping container is converted into a classroom, with new windows cut into the size to allow airflow to flow through the space, and a shade cloth prevents direct sunlight from heating up the inside of the SolarBerry. Each unit is equipped with 11 Raspberry Pi computers and powered by solar panels on the roof of the container. The SolarBerry is having a huge impact on CHOMA, where it is allowing the local schools to offer computer studies and support the young people in gaining the digital skills needed for the 21st century. I congratulate everyone involved in this innovative project from the Turing Trust and the Curry and Bolero Rotary Club on being able to deliver the teaching of digital skills to some of the remotest and poorest communities in Africa. In order to continue this project, it is clear that they need more companies and organisations to donate their old computer equipment. The Turing Trust is located in Simpson Loan on the old Royal Infirmary site, less than two miles from this Parliament. Surely we better use the computer equipment that is being disposed of from this place if it was donated to the Turing Trust to be white, repaired and loaded with offline educational resources for use in Africa than the current practice of sending it for destruction. That is an idea that I intend to raise with the corporate body in the coming weeks. In closing, I wish to highlight one last point—funding. As I stated earlier, I am delighted that the Turing Trust has been a recipient of the Scottish Government's small grants programme. The charity has ambitions to get computers into every Malawian secondary school by 2025, but in order to achieve that goal, more international development funding will be critical. The reality is that, for small Scottish charities, there are few opportunities to scale up in order to compete at the full development programme level. The Scottish Government has led the way through the small grants programme, which inspires many charities to scale up their ambitions and activities. However, in order to continue that journey to encourage small Scottish charities to grow, could there be a funding round for up to 250,000 or 500,000 projects over three years that would help to build Scottish expertise and develop our small charities to help them make the transition into fully-fledged agents for international development? I hope that the minister will be happy to discuss this with me and those involved in the near future. Thank you, Mr MacDonald. I also welcome the members of the Currie Balerna recycling of the Rotary Club. I also say gently that there is no applause in the public gallery, please. I know that you feel like doing it, but it is not permitted. I now call Gordon MacDonald to be followed by—Gordon MacDonald? I will need to start putting sugar in my tea. I will have Gordon Lindhurst to be followed by Stuart Stevenson. Mr Lindhurst, sorry about that. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I begin my speech by thanking Gordon MacDonald for bringing this debate to the chamber today? As a Lothian MSP, I am delighted that the work of the Rotary Club of Currie and Balerna is being recognised in the Scottish Parliament in this way. Indeed, I have previously paid tribute to the Rotary Club and, in particular, an initiative regarding its community chess project in a motion that I submitted last year. The community chess project was something that the club did alongside Balerna village trust. The aim of that was to set aside funds to assist local clubs and organisations with small projects that benefit the local community. The Rotary Club assists a wide range of people and groups, both young and old, through an impressive array of different projects. A clear example of the footprint that it leaves is its work with the Georgia Rotary Scholarship programme as detailed on its website. Three Rotary districts in the United States of Georgia sponsor up to 67 students from around the world each year to study at one of Georgia universities for an academic year, a package worth around $30,000 per student. My understanding is that between two and five pupils from the local area secure places on those programmes each year through the Rotary Club in Currie and Balernau. However, as Gordon McDonald has pointed out and his motion points out, the Rotary Club does not just benefit the people of Currie and Balernau. Its international efforts have included raising substantial funds for the End Polio Now campaign and the Nepal earthquake appeal in 2015. It is a club with global reach. Gordon McDonald has set out the work that the club has done with computers. Why computers? We live in a globalised world and those who are cut off from it can often be left behind. Fundamental to tackling the issue of poverty in Africa is to equip as many people as possible with the technology and support to work in that global environment. That includes equipping young people with the tools and skills to be able to learn and work in a world that is IT and technology-driven in a way that our own young people in Scotland take that for granted. There is much to be done to help to build that capacity for Africa so that people there can enjoy the same access that we often take for granted. Computer access is, of course, essential to this and why it is so important, as is the generosity of those who donate their old computers to the club. I would like to conclude by highlighting one of the quotes on the website from a volunteer working in Africa as part of the project. It gives a flavour of the impact that this work has on the people receiving the computers. The emotions and the teachers and students faces as we were setting up the computers is something that I will treasure forever. Let me end my speech today, Deputy Presiding Officer, by saying a big thank you to all the Rotary Club members who are involved in this vitally important work. Thank you very much. I now call Stuart Stevenson to be followed by Alison Johnson. Mr Stevenson, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Let me first draw attention to my register of interests as a member of the institution of engineering and technology and a member of the association for computing machinery. It is a great delight to see the members of Corry and Ballernol Rotary Club here. My own father became the president of Cooper Rotary Club in 1956, which was just a few years ago. One of my very early speeches on computing was to Cooper Rotary Club in 1973. Rotary is a very important part of our social infrastructure and does good work right across Scotland and, of course, with international reach. It is a delight to hear of a relatively small club doing something that, without question, is benefiting people who need our support in Africa. Old computers are, of course, something that I rather like being as I am the oldest person looking around carefully. In the chamber, I think that there is some value in things that have age. We can reuse them and rediscover the merits. The reality is that, although computers are obsolete by updates in the software environment and changing fashion, they can, in fact, continue to operate for many years, delivering useful service. The benefit to the environment and the benefit through re-use of old computers is of wider benefit altogether. It is worth saying myself and two pals built the first home computer in Scotland in 1975 that computer is still running. It happens to be up in Caithness with one of the Combine. The issue 2 that it is worth going to, there was something in what Gordon MacDonald said about scaling up. In many ways, in innovation in particular, there is an intrinsic value in comparatively small teams. Innovation happens where communication between the members of a group is tight, is close. If you have a big group, it is much more difficult. In Africa, we have seen where the opportunity has been created to have access to technology—genuine innovation that shows the way for people far beyond. In particular, Africa has been the place where electronic money has been developed using mobile phones to avoid people having to go to banks to exchange money between phones. Technology developed locally and showed us in the rest of the world that there is genuine ability to innovate if only we can give people the equipment with which to do it. The Raspberry Pi is a wonderful tiny little computer that you can get in the palm of your hand. The American Moon landing programme is, of course, the genesis of the integrated chip. There was only 0.4W available for the 2K computer that navigated the Moon lander down, and that required the integrated chip. Today, the integrated chip is something that is such that I now have 4 gigabytes of memory on my wrist, whereas the first computer that I programmed in the 1960s had 1K of memory. The world moves on, but that should not mean that the computers of the past are without value. I very much welcome the Rotary Club of Currie and Ballerno showing the way in which we can reuse them. I hope, in particular, that we are seeing recycling of laptops. They seem to have a shorter fashion life cycle. One of the important things about a laptop going out to areas where continuous access to electricity is limited is that, of course, they work when they are not connected to the mains. I hope that, if laptops have not been part of the focus, they will become part of the future focus. I hope that this debate, in other ways in which what is going on in Currie and Ballerno and in Africa becomes more widely known, the model is picked up and copied. I hope that there is no patents and no copyrights on the design of the solar berry, because it sounds a rattling good idea that I would like to see replicated elsewhere. I certainly, the next time I meet Rotarians in the north-east of Scotland, will be drawing their attention to the example that this small Rotary Club has given us. Congratulations to them and, of course, to Gordon MacDonald for bringing this debate to Parliament today. Thank you very much, Mr Sealison. I now call Alison Johnstone. We follow about Alexander Stewart with the last speaker in the open debate. I, too, would like to congratulate Gordon MacDonald for securing this debate on the important work that the Rotary Club of Currie, Ballerno and the Edinburgh-based Touring Trust are doing to promote the recycling of PCs. It is lovely to have you with us this evening. I would like to spend my short time focusing on what this work does to tackle the vexing problem of e-waste and the educational benefit that it is clearly having. Electronic waste, as we know, is a major and growing problem. The UN global e-waste monitor reports that, every year, the world produces around 44 million tonnes of e-waste. That is the same weight as 4,500 Eiffel towers, but, unfortunately, it is predicting that that will increase. It will rise to 52 million tonnes by 2021. Only around 20 per cent of that is reported to be recycled. For many millions of tonnes of e-waste, we simply do not know what happens to it due to lack of monitoring. E-waste from Europe and other developed countries is exported to emerging economies where it is not always properly reused or recycled. The European Environment Agency estimates that between 250,000 tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes of used electrical products are shipped out of the EU every year to West Africa and Asia, and that a significant proportion is not safely processed. That has just one of the many reasons that the work of the Currie Ballerno Rotary Club and the Touring Trust is so very important. The collecting, the cleaning and upgrading with educational software of over 4,000 computers is a huge task. What a fantastic achievement. Ross Coburn from Currie, the founder of the West Lothian-based reusing IT charity, has donated more than 400 pieces and monitors to the Rotary Club's campaign. As well as the positive environmental impact, evidence shows that the computers are having a really profound impact on the quality of education and on the life chances of the students who receive them. A survey conducted by the Touring Trust in Malawi found that the vast majority of students reported using the donated computers made learning easier and more enjoyable. Teachers, too, report an increase in academic performance with pupils at the Lodoma secondary school all passing their science exams. That is something that has not been seen before the arrival of the Touring Trust computers. It is a notable achievement. Both organisations are also doing their bit to ensure that the proper infrastructure exists to support computer learning. As Gordon MacDonald mentioned, 87 per cent of Malawian schools do not have electricity, so the Touring Trust's solar berry project is vital. As Gordon said, with the help of four retired professionals who are also members of Currie Baleirno Rotary, the trust has transformed a large cargo container by fitting solar panels on the roof and 13 low-energy Raspberry Pi computers inside, allowing young people in the Choma community to access computers when otherwise it would simply have been impossible, and the wider community is clearly benefiting, too. Rotary members have also been raising money for solar-powered electric lighting, so classes in the Choma community can continue in the evening. I think that that really is a transformative model and one that we should seek to learn from and to roll out wherever is appropriate. I think that there is much to learn for all of us from that fabulous example. To close, I warmly welcome the work of both Currie Baleirno Rotary Club and the Touring Trust. I congratulate everyone involved in getting so many computers that might otherwise have gone to waste to those who need them most. I hope that the support that the Scottish Government has provided through its small grant scheme will continue and perhaps grow, and I echo Gordon MacDonald's call that this Parliament should do all it can to provide support to the smaller Scots charities like those who clearly are making a profound and important difference to many lives. I am pleased to have the opportunity to participate this afternoon, and I also congratulate Gordon MacDonald on bringing the member's business to the chamber. Along with my other MSP colleagues, I appreciate that the Rotary Club of Currie Baleirno and the Touring Trust have done massive work already. Their innovation of recycling and providing used computers for schools in Africa over the past six years is nothing short of inspiring and shows the real value of Rotary International and how it can assist and support individuals and organisations across the globe. As I rotate in myself, I am fully aware of the rules that happen within a club, and I have been fortunate enough to have a number of rules in my time as vice-president, president and international development within my own club of the Rotary Club of Perth St John's. I have experienced first hand the year determination, the commitment, the enthusiasm and the hard work that Rotarians put into the rule, and they see that as supporting not local but national and international projects. Rotarians go that extra mile to support individuals to ensure that they can and do make changes to people's lives, and this project is doing that without question. As much of the work that has already been seen, individuals are relatively unseen and sometimes unsung about what they will do, so it is very important that we have this opportunity this evening to have members of the club here and others who are supporting in the gallery to hear their congratulations and commendations for what they are trying to achieve. In addition, as the co-convener of the cross-party group on Malawi, I have been a long-time supporter of Scotland-Malawi partnership, and I have seen the trust and excellent work that they are doing with reference to education in Malawi, but not just in Malawi across the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, the PhD student James Turing himself honoured his great-uncle, the computer scientist, and we have heard that, who was heavily involved in the Bletchley Park code-breaking Alan Turing at finding and supporting that. Following his first trip to Ghana in 2009, James noticed how difficult it was for schools to acquire affordable, reusable computers. I think that this project has galvanised that support and shows what can be achieved. I pay tribute to the staff and the volunteers of the Edinburgh charity who have ensured that those computers can be refurbished and replaced and have gone to Africa. I know that the Malawi partnership in the centre of youth development in Mazuzu in 2015 benefited massively from its involvement. After years of computers that we have already heard about, the Solar Berry is trying to ensure that it has the electricity to help that. That has been designed and the Solar Berry itself is off the good computer, and that is there to ensure that the Raspberry Pi computers are workable and being used. That has supported about 250 students and around 1,000 adults in the community day secondary school, which is in rural Malawi. I also pay tribute to the Turing trust for supporting hundreds of schools across Malawi, Liberia and Ghana, where 4,000 computers have already been installed. As a result of the commitment of the Routerian and the Routerians in the club, alongside the Turing trust, around 25,000 students in Africa are now IT literate, plus 450 teachers are now trained in basic computer maintenance skills. That is to be commended and applauded. I wish to say to the Routerians that, for what they are doing, they are playing as having a change of life for individuals who would not have that opportunity. I think that that encompasses the whole Routerian attitude that, by doing something for others, you can ensure that that takes place. I pay tribute to the success that they have done for the time and the talent that they have, and I commend and congratulate them for all the work that they are doing and well done. I thank you very much. I now call on Ben Macpherson to close to the Government minister, please. Thank you also very much to Gordon MacDonald for securing this debate and bringing the work of the Rotary Club of Cary Belerno. I warm welcome to you all and the Turing trust as a whole to the attention of this Parliament as we start this year. I also thank you to Gordon MacDonald and others for highlighting the Scottish Government's international small grants programme. As has been said, the Scottish Government was pleased to provide funding to the Turing trust under the small grants programme for their improving ICT skills in rural Malawi powered by renewable energy project. I know that there has been reference this evening to the work of the trust in Ghana and Liberia. The Scottish Government's support was specifically for our partner country, Malawi. The project, which began in 2016, has enabled the Turing trust to create a customised e-library to complement the provision of community ICT hubs in 200 rural schools in Malawi and to understand that the project is progressing well and will be completed later this year. I have been impressed to hear the incredible work that the Rotary Club of Cary and Belerno and the Turing trust have done together in delivering support with the Scottish Government. In particular, the approach that those organisations have adopted, the power and importance of partnership working should not be underestimated and is at the heart of the Scottish Government's international development strategy. I know from my constituency of Edinburgh and Northern Leith, the Rotary Club is also at the heart of what the Rotary movement seeks to do and achieve and the difference that it makes. The Turing trust is just one example of an organisation receiving funding through the Scottish Government's small grants programme. A small grants programme was established in 2013 to help to grow the international development sector here in Scotland and to support it in helping some of the world's most vulnerable communities in our partner countries of the time and of today. What we have heard today is symbolic of the difference that has been made. With £500,000, £0.5 million made available annually, the small grants programme is an integral part of our international development fund. We are now beginning to see some smaller, younger organisations in Scotland, such as First Aid Africa, who are successfully bidding for and being awarded grants under our larger programmes. In First Aid Africa's case, that is in Zambia. That is testament to the success of the small grant programme in developing smaller organisations and increasing capacity within the Scottish international development sector. The latest small grants funding round closed in November 2018, just a few months ago, and applications are currently being assessed and applicants will be notified of the outcome of their applications in the coming months. I am very much looking forward to receiving recommendations for our independent assessors. As I said, the small grants programme is an important part of our international development strategy, as has been exemplified by the debate and the difference that has been made by the Rotary Club and the Turing Trust. I have had feedback on that programme from the International Development Alliance in Scotland. I am always welcome to receive feedback on how that is operating. On that point, I would be happy to meet Gordon MacDonald in the way that he requested in his opening remarks. Technology, as has been highlighted by other speakers, is a hugely important aspect to international development and how we take things forward. Technology has the capacity to make major life-changing differences to many of the world's most vulnerable people and communities, and making technology available to the most vulnerable, for example, computers or mobile phones, can assist in improving the ability to hold Governments to account, to increase economic opportunity, empowerment and productivity, to encourage learning and even save lives through the provision of healthcare and health information. Many of the projects that are funded by the Scottish Government's international development fund use old and new technologies to assist some of the most vulnerable people and communities, to lift themselves out of poverty and to build better futures for themselves and their children. For example, in 2012, we funded an innovative project through 1 billion, which helped more than 30,000 Malawian pupils to learn maths through the medium of Chichewa using interactive apps on iPads. Under the 2015 to 2018 Malawi development fund, the Scottish Government provided funding to the voluntary service overseas organisation in partnership with 1 billion for their unlocking talent through technology project. The project was built on the 2012 grant by equipping classrooms in the Can-Yu's-Goo district with mobile technology to enhance instruction and allow for highly tailored and interactive learning. Unlocking talent is now a nationwide educational initiative across Malawi, partly built through the progress that the project made. The initiative is now institutionalised and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology's digital education technology agenda, with a goal to embed it in all 5,300 primary schools covering roughly 4.4 million children across the country. That highlights, building on the example of the motion today and the subject of today, the power and importance of partnership working, supporting small organisations and harnessing technology to reduce poverty. There are other examples across Malawi that I could highlight. For example, in the past year, the Scottish Government has funded the Scotland-Malawi partnership that was mentioned to use some of its funding and its IT equipment in its long-way communications and resources centre to provide computer and training skills to 115 girls and young women from five schools. That and the example of today's debate are important examples of how technology can be used to drive social change and empower those in our partner countries and elsewhere in the developing world to make a bigger difference. In closing, let me focus again and take a moment to thank the Rotary Club of Currie and Bellerno and the Turing Trust for the important work that they do in recycling, refurbishing and shipping computers to developing countries. They have been innovative in their approach to recycling computers and other technology and their partnership working has been exemplary and in increasing literary skills in Malawi. That focus on increasing digital literary skills has made an important and meaningful difference. That work is very much appreciated by all in the chamber, as has been said today, and more widely, and by the Scottish Government. We are happy to have supported this project through the small grant scheme and recognised and celebrated the collective contribution that has been made together towards greater global citizenship and making a bigger difference. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting of Parliament.