Celebrated codebreaker’s legacy lives on in Africa through the Turing Trust
“I think the one thing that almost everyone can agree on from Alan Turing’s legacy is that his life experience really highlighted the injustice and unequal treatment of people around the world,” says James Turing, over a Zoom call in mid-January lockdown.
The great-nephew of the world-renowned mathematician and computer scientist is looking to keep his legacy alive — through a charitable Trust he created from his student bedroom eleven years ago.
Turing legacy
The Turing Trust aims to address the digital divide in rural communities in Africa, by reusing old computers and improving teacher training in IT. Inspired by his volunteer work in Ghana in 2009, James initially hoped to support one school in the country’s Ashanti region. After two years, the charity had acquired 20 refurbished computers and built a computer lab for students at Afoako ICCES Tech Vocational Education Centre.
“We wanted to continue Alan’s legacy by helping some of the world’s poorest communities gain access to computer technology,” says James, whose great-uncle’s work in cracking intercepted coded messages is estimated to have shortened the Second World War by as many as two years. Despite Alan Turing’s astounding achievements, the founder of modern computing suffered horrific homophobic treatment by the criminal justice system and was forced to undergo chemical castration.
“Alan was very much interested in doing things for the benefit of all, making sure everyone gets fair and equal treatment. Our vision is that every child in the world deserves an opportunity to learn how to use a computer.”
Trust expansion
James references the Ghanaian teacher, Richard Appiah Akoto, who became a social media sensation in 2018, for his painstaking chalk drawings of the entire Microsoft Word interface on his blackboard. “It just shows the extent to which educators are trying to teach students digital skills without the tools or devices.”
He started by asking friends, family and his former school for unused computers, before realising many people had old computers gathering dust, not sure what to do with them. Through word of mouth and support from the University of Edinburgh, where James, 29, studied civil engineering and architecture, things took off.
“My student bedroom was literally filled with computers. Their hard drives would be wiped clean in one corner and then pushed over to the other wall when complete,” he says. After two years, the charity found suitable premises at the Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh. From there, with the help of a strong volunteer network as well as a whole range of personal and company donations, the charity was able to grow and send thousands of computers to Ghana. The Trust also began working with another UK charity to help support schools in the Gambia, as well as piloting a solar-powered computer lab near Mount Kenya.
However, it wasn’t until a grant in 2016 from the Scottish government’s international development programme that the Trust’s activities expanded to Malawi. It enabled the charity to hire staff for the first time, as well as set up their most ambitious project to date — the Solarberry.
“One of the biggest challenges that many of these rural schools face is that they simply don’t have access to electricity,” explains James. Malawi is among the least electrified countries in the world, with only 11% of its population having access to electricity and down to 4% in rural communities.
“We looked around at various solutions and from our experience in Kenya, solar powered computer labs were a really great way of providing off-grid communities with access to computers and electricity.”
Learning opportunities
Through repurposing shipping containers, the team were able to build self-contained IT classrooms, cutting doors into the side and fitting them with solar panels to power low energy Raspberry Pi computers. The computer labs have proved popular with the school students, despite initial hesitancy from older members of the community.
Partnering alongside the CYD (Centre for Youth and Development) and with support from the Malawian government, the project has been a success across the Northern Region, supporting thousands of students as well as having a positive environmental impact. More recently it has seen tablets, a projector, and an intranet network — all powered by solar energy — installed at the Ntchuwa Primary School.
The Trust last year received a further two-year grant from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Small Charities Challenge Fund) to help educate 14,000 Malawian schoolgirls who would otherwise be excluded from digital literacy lessons because of gender, disability or where they live. The country ranks 149 out of 162 countries in a UN gender Inequality study in 2018.
“We’re certainly not looking to change the entire structure of Malawian society by any stretch, but hopefully through simple measures of teaching girls computing skills, it will mean they have more opportunities in life, and in the long run, lead to a more equal society,” says James, who hopes this project will help bring the Trust’s ambition of ensuring that every Malawian secondary school has an opportunity to learn IT at school that bit closer.
“When we first started in Malawi, on average, just 3% of schools had access to computers. After just four years’ work there, we’ve managed to get the northern third of the country to 44% access. By 2026, we hope to ensure every Malawian secondary school has adequate IT facilities.”
Community impact
The global pandemic, James says, has caused massive disruption to the charity’s volunteering programme, but has had a positive impact as companies and workplaces are becoming remote and no longer need their desktop computers. “We’ve had some incredible donations come through,” he says, “Even quite a few machines that are only one-year old, which is amazing.”
The Trust moved into its new premises in Loanhead, Midlothian last year and has so far improved access to IT in 211 schools and organisations across the UK and sub-Saharan Africa. More than 81,000 students have been supported, 9,204 computers have been sent through the reuse scheme, and 650 people have volunteered and had training opportunities in the UK. Many of the local volunteers have gone on to careers in IT.
National recognition
James believes Alan Turing’s legacy has transformed in the time since he died by suicide in 1954, aged just 41. He cites the posthumous Royal pardon in 2013 and the release of The Imitation Game the following year as cementing Alan’s place as a nationally lauded figure.
“It’s amazing the way Alan’s legacy has changed over the decades. I remember growing up as a child and barely anyone would ever say my name correctly. All kinds of versions of turning in a circle,” laughs James. “But since the rediscovery of Bletchley Park, in particular, it’s really sort of enabled people to investigate the amazing history of what happened at Bletchley during the war. And that’s really brought Alan’s story to life.”
An oft-overlooked story James is keen to highlight as he feels it speaks volumes of Alan’s character, was his philanthropic work. “A belief he practiced from the very earliest days of his career, when he sponsored a young Austrian Jewish refugee, Robert Augenfeld, through secondary school in the UK, and later funded Hazel Ward’s charitable work in Africa.”
The Trust hopes the donations will continue steadily throughout the year and their volunteer programme can resume as soon as it is safe to do so.
“I don’t imagine for a second Alan would have ever dreamt of how much the world could change through computing. I’m not sure he would recognise the world we live in now. But I do hope, because of his passionate belief in the power of education, he would approve our work in Africa.”
