CHANGEMAKER: Learning centre brings digital and tech skills to Hillbrow’s youth

What if a kid from Hillbrow became the world’s next great inventor? What if the next Mark Zuckerberg or Sam Altman came out of the inner city of Jozi? These are the possibilities that inspired Netstar, a subsidiary of tech giant Altron, to put in a digital learning centre (DLC) at the BG Alexander Estate in Hillbrow, one of Jozi’s toughest ’hoods.The BG, as it’s dubbed around here, is a secure social housing complex occupying an entire Hillbrow block. A series of buildings built around an open courtyard, the BG has housing units for 1,000 people, a kitchen, church, crèches and after-care centres, recreation halls – and now the Netstar DLC.Once the residence of a prestigious nursing college, the BG had fallen into ghastly disrepair by the early 2000s. It was hijacked in 2001 and remained dangerous and derelict until 2007, when the Madulammoho Housing Association and the Johannesburg Social Housing Company joined forces to reclaim the block.MES (Mould Empower Serve) is a faith-based non-profit that tackles poverty and homelessness in the city, and provides a full range of social services inside the BG.Thanks to super-connector Jozi My Jozi, MES will now be running the Netstar DLC, a purpose-built centre with two spacious classrooms that is set to be a game-changer for the Grade 7 to Grade 9 learners who come here every day after school.For the first time, these kids will have access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) resources like tinkering, robotics and coding, which are critical skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and an AI-based future.“Tinkering,” wrote Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich in The Art of Tinkering, “is thinking with your hands and learning through doing. It’s getting curious about the mechanics and mysteries of everyday stuff around you. It’s whimsical, enjoyable, fraught with dead ends, frustrating, and, ultimately, about inquiry.”And it builds vital cognitive, physical and emotional skills.Robotics also acts as a physical sandbox where abstract concepts such as mathematics, logic and team dynamics become practical. And ­coding trains the brain to break massive, chaotic problems into small, logical steps by writing precise sequential instructions in a programming language that a computer can execute.In two spacious and funkily decorated classrooms, BG learners will have access to these IT and digital skills. During the school day, the hub also opens its doors to learners from neighbouring schools, multiplying its reach well beyond the facility’s after-care student body.“This is what meaningful corporate social investment looks like in practice,” said incoming Netstar managing director Warren Mande. “We didn’t want a one-off donation or a logo on a wall. We want something that compounds year after year, learner after learner, and a digital learning centre delivers exactly that. The young learners walking through these doors are the engineers, software developers and entrepreneurs SA is going to need tomorrow. Our job is to make sure they get a head start.”“Partnerships are the cornerstone of progress and the premise on which we act as a super-connector,” said Innocent Mabusela, CEO of Jozi My Jozi. “Altron and Netstar didn’t just join the movement, they are delivering on it. Two centres in [Altron rolled out a DLC at the Maharishi Invincibility Institute in Marshalltown last year], we are seeing what’s possible when corporate South Africa shows up consistently for the benefit of the city and its children as we work to revitalise the CBD, bringing back hope and instilling pride in our city.” DMBridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.