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Don Alfons Nisnoni
Don Alfons Nisnoni

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You don't need to go to Google, Facebook, etc to contribute on technology.

When I first learned how to program, I always dreamed of working one day at a large technology company like Google, Facebook, Intel, etc. I'm sure you might have dreamed that too. Well, it was a good dream right? 😉

The dream continues to motivate me every day. Whether it's learning, practice, refactoring, etc. Because the motivation was too excessive, even I was willing to do the tasks of my classmates. Even my other friends say I'm stupid. Well, I sometimes ask that question back to myself and the answer is because I want to make a small dot, which later I combine the small dots into a big dot. Yes... exactly as Steve Jobs said 😄.

Take a break

One day, I finally decided to take a break not to deal with programming and computers. Then I went to my grandmother's village, not too far from my city. Arriving there, my grandmother hugged me and said: "You are too busy there, then forget your grandmother for quite a long time". Hmmm... that is 9 months since the last time I visit her. Because of this, I decided to stay there longer.

They need help

Well, at that time I was in college. Because my grandmother's neighbor found out I went to a computer science college, they assumed that I could fix their broken TV, rice cooker, dispenser. Yes ... it's funny and I managed to fix it, thanks to YouTube. So, we can conclude that their understanding of computers is still weak, and that is a small problem that can be corrected by people like us. It might be different in your place, but this is a problem in our place.

One week passed there, I turned into an electronics technician 😂, very pleasant but risky because I had never dirty my hands with this before.

The next day, I went to the house of one of the neighbors, and they had a computer but never used it. Sadly, they say that they don't know how to operate it. Finally I taught them, installing a printer, also had time to install games for their children. Honestly, I was very happy to do that. Wit that way, they don't need to go far to the city to print documents anymore.

Small contribution

After two weeks there, I returned to the city. Then I told my college friends, they were very concerned about that and we discuss it. Finally, we make a plan to teach some schools in remote villages. We plan to teach them about hardware, basic computer components, basic computer operations, and some basic software like Word, Calculator, Paint, etc. After preparing the tools and equipment, We were ready to go and very excited about this mission.

After coordinating with the principal of each school, we got a good response from each of them. After arriving at the first school, they were very happy with our arrival, especially after seeing the equipment that we brought. Yes ... their eyes look like they see a gold. And we knew that would happen. 😄 Because I also acted like that when I was in middle school.

After the ceremony, they were all gathered in their hall. Well, there are so many of them, so I and some of my friends feel a little nervous. So teaching begins. As long as we teach them, they always come up with very good questions, sometimes they're like to throw a tricky question, even some of us can't answer them. They were also very curious that they would not let us go home. Hahaha... but our time is limited. They even want us to promise to come to teach them again. Hmmm ... of course we want to do that again someday.

The same thing we encountered in every school we teach, they are very happy and curious about computers. What an amazing experience to do that. I don't know, I just feel care about them, because they're our next generation. So at least they know the basic things about computers to help them in the future.

I just hope other young people can do this little thing in their area. A small thing that is very beneficial for those who live in remote villages.

Conclusions

We know that there are still many problems or things we can do in our area that can be solved with technology or small things like me and my friends do. So, I think you or me don't have to go to a big tech company to contribute to technology. I think it's like "Don't love someone before you can love yourself". But it's up to you...

Try to contribute to your area, make something useful! they need great people like you 🔥💪!

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