DigiBridge
June proudly shows her classmates a picture of her grandchild that she has just printed from an email - a simple task for many but computers and 72-year-old June have only just met.
Her first try of technology was bewildering and frustrating but thanks to DigiBridge, a pioneering IT resource and training company, June's world has opened up to the fresh, new possibility of communications.
Her success is a prime example of DigiBridge's work in connecting communities and people with no internet experience or computer access.
"We make people happy, that's how I like to view it," says founder Diye Wariebi (pictured right). "For many people we take away the pain of encountering computers and the internet for the first time. We try to make it easy for them so they can benefit from learning all about it."
June arrived at one of DigiBridge's classes at the St. Luke's Trust & Community Centre, in Islington, London, and within eight weeks had picked up the basic skills to put her in touch with relatives around the globe.
"She was pretty lonely and would come to the centre to play bingo and meet people but now the internet and email have opened up her world," adds Diye. "At first she found it frustrating and difficult because she had never used technology before. But now she is up and running there's no stopping her. She has even campaigned for another course to be run because she wants to keep practising.
"It's great when you see people getting in touch and the thrill it gives them. She was showing a picture of her grandson around. She was very proud of him and very proud that she'd printed the picture."
DigiBridge calls on a squad of volunteers - the Geeks Who Care - to staff them so that disadvantaged families can learn the basics. The company also offers expert IT systems and strategy to small and emerging businesses.
The company, which is based in east London, specialises in offering computer literacy to low income household and deprived communities while providing a cost-effective service to enterprise businesses and projects. Many of its users are parents from ethnic communities who are keen to keep up with their children.
"They see their children as proficient on computers and want to learn so they can keep pace with what is happening at school. The family benefits greatly from being computer literate," adds Diye, 38.
"There is a community of people who are committed to social inclusion and are technically brilliant. They are volunteers but they get great satisfaction from it - life and work are about much more than making money."
But DigiBridge also has a string of satisfied customers as well as huge fan club of individuals.
Diye, who came to the UK from Liberia as an 11-year-old and settled in east London completed a degree and a Masters in civil engineering at Manchester University before getting a job with a firm that included working on the Jubilee Line Extension on London Underground.
But he studied IT in his spare time and, when qualified, switched professions, got a new job and rose through the ranks. The company supplied refurbished computers to a charity for the disabled and the project sparked an interest.
"That was how I became socially aware and realised how lonely some of these people were and how they were excluded," he adds. "I was also struck by how much more we could do. I wanted to do more."
He moved to work with a housing association and formulated the idea of DigiBridge after becoming part of the School for Social Entrepreneurs. A pilot scheme to provide ten families with computers, training and broadband access attracted £3,500 sponsorship from Unltd, the charity that supports social entrepreneurs. The success encouraged him to set up as a community interest company working in challenging social environments.
The business has grown and Diye was successful in securing a loan from the Co-operative & Community Finance which is helping DigiBridge maintain sensible business progress.
"I love this and couldn't imagine doing anything else," he says. "It is so rewarding to help people. I felt there was something missing in my life until I started supporting local residents through IT whilst working at the housing association and really discovered what a difference I could make.
"You get much less money but much more satisfaction from helping people. There is a feeling out there that everyone has a computer and knows them inside out but there are big sections of the community that don't.
"We will continue to help them and we had one Bangladeshi woman on the training course recently who had three children by the time she was 23. She had never had the chance to learn about computers and when she finished the course she said ‘Thank you for believing in me and making me realise there's more to me than being a mother. I have found me within myself again after a long time.' That is the sort of thing that keeps you going.
"The business loan has given me confidence that I have a good business - they wouldn't back it if they didn't think it was sound - and I am committed to growing DigiBridge around London and then hopefully further."