In 2003, staff from the University of Strathclyde's Information Resources Directorate were commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to carry out a study on the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within Malawi.
The survey identified a real need for computers and appropriate software in educational and hospital environments. It also identified the need for the provision of good practice concerning systems support and maintenance.
This study was the starting point for the Malawi Millennium Project's involvement in the use of ICT in Malawi.
The first batch of 108 computers, donated by the Glasgow City Council, was sent to Malawi in 2004. They were completely refurbished, and tested, and appropriate operating systems and software were installed by staff at the University of Strathclyde.
In 2004, staff returned to Malawi to visit five of the seven institutions benefiting from the computers. The five visited were:
- Malawi Polytechnic
- Bunda College of Agriculture
- Chancellor College
- Kamuzu College of Nursing
- Chikwawa Hospital
The other two institutions to benefit were Ekwendeni Hospital and Mchinji Orphanage.
The uses ranged from environmental health and water sanitation to patient databases and nurse training.
A one-day workshop was delivered during the visit to the Malawi Polytechnic. It was attended by 12 IT support staff from the various constituent colleges of the University of Malawi. The aim was to train IT support staff to use disk imaging software to manage teaching clusters and stand-alone computers with common hardware specifications.
Since then, many hundreds of computers have been delivered to a manner of educational establishments.