Computer Skills for a Handful of Roubles

During a recent field visit to Islamic Relief’s (IR) Chechnya office I took the opportunity to brush up my computer skills at one of IR’s computer classes in Nalchik, Ingushetia. The computer centre is adjacent to the North Caucasus main office and is modern and well-equipped. It teaches students basic skills, helping them to gain better employment.

Artur was teaching the class I attended, and he was very professional. There were seven other students, both men and women, with most of them in their twenties. I expect I was the first ever British student to have joined a class there! At any given time there are four or five different groups and they all study for 90 minutes a day for one month.

In this lesson we learned about file names and folders and also how to use the provodnik (literally ‘guide’ but known to us as ‘Windows Explorer’). As someone already familiar with Microsoft Windows programmes it was a strange experience to be taken through it all step-by-step. However, for students who may never have used a computer this training is extremely useful. The session was accompanied by a comprehensive handout.

The second half of the lesson proved more of a challenge for me as students were given the opportunity to practice their Russian language typing skills. Although I can speak Russian reasonably well, typing the Cyrillic alphabet is another thing altogether!

The students each pay around 800 Roubles (€23) for the month-long course, and this is enough to make the computer centre fairly self-sufficient. With the basic skills learned at IR computer classes the students find themselves better equipped to find a decent job.

Currently the centre helps displaced Chechen students living in Nalchik, Ingushetia. A second computer centre in Grozny, Chechnya was destroyed in the war. Currently there are plans underway to expand this popular scheme into Nazran - and of course, one day to restart in Chechnya when security conditions permit.