I am so humbled to see you comment on this article. Thank you very much!

I am very glad to hear that the program has attracted the interest of commercial banks. I hope this will create room for further cooperation in areas such as student projects, internships and employment.

Here in the blogosphere, we will continue spreading the word about the program.

Few people realize that security issues are critical in sectors like banking. Similarly, leakage of sensitive information could cause untold embarrassment. Wikleaks has vindicated the value of protecting information.Millions of dollars are stolen and lost because of inadeqaute protection even through plastic transactions

That being the case, it is now proper to popularise the program and give the resources it deserves.
I welcome suggestions from contributors!

Dr. Orton V. Msiska

Sorry, I left away some words and my email address, for this kind of things:
albatrodei7mari@libero.it.
I subscribed ti your newsletter.
I didn’t revise the comment and hope I didn’t make many mistakes.
If what I wrote is of very little or no interest for you and your readers, I beg you pardon: just forget about it and me, and erase it.

Zikomo (Arrivederci),

ALB.

these weeks, among other either ‘must’ or useful things, I’m carrying on some thorough searching about ‘Italian Restaurants, Pizzerias, Italian Foodstores, Hotels and Pubs’, both in Italy, inside and outside the EU, in order to start marketing the right way some top & original olive oil, wines, sparkling wines and the like and some vegetable cream specialties, all 100% made in Italy, certified and with good price-quality.

Coming to sincerely cherished ‘little big’ Malawi – quite like my country, ‘little big’ Italy – I found your blog too.

(But you, at this point, could say to yourself: Please, a bit more patience…)

Let’s come to the very point.
My late grandfather Joseph Beretta and grandmother Augusta Gentili left northern (Erba, Como) Italy for Nyasaland, around 1900.
Joseph was formerly a – still legally – elephant hunter, then a tobacco and tea planter. They registered in Thyolo/Cholo district, but had a plantation in Lipomula (a very small village, I can’t find anything else on the Internet about it), and a villa in Luchenza.

My father, Alessandro, was born in Blantyre, Nyasaland, June 26, 1913.

They come back, to Italy in 1919, owing to some forced reasons.

I was born in Milan, northern Italy – the 2nd city of the country – in 1945; my late father used to tell me many made up and real stories about that period, very happy for him, even if he, during the 1915 Chilembwe’s (right) Riot, was thrown into a burning kiln! But he was promptly rescued by his, most likely Ngoni, 2 mt. tall body guard ;o).

Of course I can’t go on writing here and now the whole, detailed story (I’ve a really smashing family Malaw…Italian album, with photos, letters, cut articles…), so I’m about to close it, for the time being.

Fact is that i like the mission of your blog and your studies and action, FIGHTING MATERIAL POVERTY THROUGH THE BEST TECHNOLOGY (AND SPIRITUAL RICHNESS, OF COURSE), especially because it comes from a Malawian scholar and citizen, and is aimed especially to Malawi(an) people, owing to my family and personal story, very much, as I think it’s thoroughly sincere. (By the way, from 1998 to 2003 I deeply devoted myself to a specific language, culture, commercial, agriculture (soya beans, sause, blossoms I like very much and use in my cooking), computing and other project, between the GOOD ITALY (/EU) and the GOOD MALAWI(/AFRICA): but then all this, apart from a big sum I managed to find for a Blantyre orphanage and another sum I collected to give some relief during the 2002 famine.

So, within Aug. 27, 2008, I’ll set up a brand new Italo-Malawian advanced blog too, ‘The Chameleon’s Smile | Il sorriso del camaleonte’, in which people will speak (maybe through Skype)/write Italian, chiChewa & English only.

As for your specific field, ELECTRONICS & COMPUTING, I had once a specific project (I’m just an advanced user, do have mercy, prof. Nthamba… ;o)), rather big and, I think, interesting.
But at present I don’t have good contacts, the required money any longer and I didn’t manage then to have some expert/scholar properly design the techniical parts which need it.

Alberto L. “ALBatro dei 7 mari” Beretta,
Skype: albatrodei7mari,
near Milan, Italy.

Isaiah had to resign from his job at Malawi SNDP. And as a friend, I was really concerned for him because I felt that he was making a terrible mistake. But I drew my encouragement from the fact that Isaiah is a very prayerful man and I knew that he had sought the face of the Lord before making this decision.And besides that, I was also very much encouraged when I heard that the coordinator of the programme is Fr Prof Ryan. I used to hear that he is a great Mathematician from Dr Matthews Mtumbuka whom he used to teach at St Patricks Seminary. The fact that Prof Ryan had done his PhD in the same field in Ireland and that he had vast international connections helped to eradicate all the doubts that I had initially about the programme. When Isaiah joined the programme, he used to tell me many exciting stories. By that time, I was also doing my MSc in Computer Engineering in Durban.We used to have great times when we met. The fact that Isaiah performed very well and that he got his PhD scholarship confirms that the programme is a world class one and that Malawians have the ability to become world class researchers in this field.

Many thanks to Limbe Leaf for supporting you and Mrs Mazizi. I hope that this kind of support will continue for many years to come and that other companies will emulate this example. I wish you all the best as you complete your studies. I see that you are in Trieste, Italy. Doors already opening!!!!

As Clement put it;I thank Limbe Leaf for supporting female participation in the course as it enrolled Mrs Mavis Mazizi and me, as the first women ever to do the course. I believe that this will also serve us an encouragement to other ladies to pursue the course since there are currently few women who are geared to pursue courses in science and technology fields.

The fact that 2 graduates from the program were able to compete on the global platform and succeed by getting high level Phd scholarships at the Claude Shanon Institute in Ireland is one of the success stories of the course. This is certainly the yardstick to measure the value that the program carries.

Many thanks to Fr. Prof Ryan for his continued efforts in supporting the program, Prof Ed Schaefer also for his work and all that are there to give a hand!