Designers Without Borders is the only non-profit organization in the world specifically dedicated to enhancing development through communication design education. We have long supported improved technological access for people in the developing world. DWB spent academic 2006-2007 working with hundreds of African students, developing and improving computer labs, planning design curricula, and donating design computing equipment and software to a number of partner institutions. Access to functioning equipment is one of the greatest debilities for students doing design work in Africa.

A scary African computer lab (now retired)

As 2007 comes to a close we are asking our friends and supporters to consider making a tax-deductible donation toward our goal of purchasing 10 Mac Mini work stations for a design ITC learning center near Entebbe, Uganda. With university overcrowding a serious drawback to successful design training, design education in Uganda is at a crossroads. The DWB Design Media Center will act as a catalyst for improved design education for teachers as well as students, and serve as an aid to the many small-scale Community Based Organization partners we support.

People like James Lutwama, who uses a DWB donated workstation to teach color at Mwereerwe Secondary School, and is attempting to open a community center in an impoverished part of Luwero. Or Kasule Kizito, who has founded the Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design in an effort to counterbalance the decay of university art programs. Or Samuel Watalasu’s community foundation that uses the “most powerful computer in Mbale”, a DWB donated Mac Mini, to teach vocational skills.

Designers Without Borders, a 501(c)(3) educational and philanthropic non-profit corporation, is committed to sustaining and expanding our design and educational initiatives in Africa. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Won’t you consider becoming a part of us?

David Stairs
Executive Director
Designers Without Borders