Gergő Balogh goes on a country trip in Hungary once a week. His mission: to teach disadvantaged children the basics of IT. He also uses his programmable lightsaber for this. The IT specialist is one of numerous experts from Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary who want to give children more opportunities for the future.
Every Tuesday, Gergő gets up at 3.30 am. Then the IT specialist from Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions travels two and a half hours by train from his Hungarian hometown of Ajka to Budapest. Together with his colleague Ármin Somorjai, he continues by car some 200 kilometers to the northeast. To Szendrőlád. This is a village with around 2,200 inhabitants. Rural - and poor. “The unemployment rate is high. People there earn around 800 euros on average,” says Gergő. There are too few teachers. But thanks to a local initiative and Deutsche Telekom, there is an IT classroom with ten computers. And volunteers from Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary.
Pupils make digital snow trickle down
Gergő and Ármin are awaited with wide eyes by the eight to ten-year-olds. Especially when Gergő has his lightsaber with him. It lights up colorfully when touched or when it makes a sound. And this can be programmed via its motherboard. Gergő and Áron show the primary school children how it works. “We want to teach everything in a playful way, make the children curious and awaken their thirst for knowledge,” says Gergő, who works as a Service Chain Operations Manager in his day-to-day job. In the Christmas season, they taught them codes that conjure up snowflakes on the screens. And immediately afterwards, they showed them how to code this with ChatGPT in a fraction of the time. AI makes it possible.
Gergő finds it important to explain things tangible. If he explains a router port, it works like a real port. When he constructs Internet cables with the children, he highlights the colors of the necessary wires and what each color means. They also take PCs apart together to better understand the components.
The IT specialists' teaching program therefore goes beyond simple codes. It also has a focus lasting several weeks. For example, cyber security with topics such as SPAM, phishing and passwords, or artificial intelligence. Some German is also included, because, says Gergő: “For people in Hungary, which is close to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, this is beneficial.”
Seven IT colleagues come to from Monday to Wednesday. They always teach in pairs, in three groups of ten children each. Every week, they also test the knowledge acquired and award small prizes to the best learners. That spurs the children on. Then even older pupils come back and join in.
Children hold the key to a better future
Gergő joined Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary in 2021. Before that, he gained over ten years of IT experience and, for example, programmed X-ray machines and robotic arms in the automotive industry. He lived in Germany for a while and also spent three years in Japan, where he has strong family ties. The father of a six-year-old daughter writes fantasy stories late at night. One of his works, which is about a role-playing game, has already been published. He also translates role playing games from English to Hungarian.
The 34-year-old is convinced that children hold the key to a better future. That is what drives him. And so he was hooked when his colleague Szilvia Gumhert first told him about her engagement three years ago. Since the very beginning, she has been involved with other IT specialists at the second location of the program, which was launched in 2018: in Pécs in the south of Hungary, near the Croatian border.
“The whole company is behind it”
Even after three years, Gergő is touched that a company makes something like this possible: “The entire company is behind it. From the boss László Kónya and entire departments such as HR and Communications, who support the project, to our teams, who take on our tasks during this time.” He also singles out his colleagues in the project: “They are great IT teachers.”
Everyone involved experiences how worthwhile everything is on site. “The children grow with their new skills and become more self-confident,” observes Gergő. That spurs him on. He is pleased that the work is highly valued by the people in the village. And when Ármin and he return after the summer break, they find themselves in a welcoming crowd with happy hugs.
Heartfelt thanks to all the IT people who are / have already been involved ...
... in Szendrőlád:
Eitler Balázs, Gergő Balogh, Balázs Dávid Kiss, Áron Fazekas, Péter Kármen, Gergely Nándor Nagy, Áron Fazekas, Ármin Somorjai, Klára Tímár, Szilárd Juszczak, Ferenc Újvári, Fülöp Máté Sterczer and Varga Zsanett. And: the local organizers Norbert Káló and Károly Káló from the Bhim Rao association.
... in Pécs:
Tamás Abrudbányay, Szilvia Gumhert, Péter Lővész, Veronika Juhászné Putz and Norbert Spivák.
... behind the scenes: Katalin Báthori und Anna Luca Fekete (both corporate communications) sowie Éva Belley (HR), Mónika Fábián (Transformation Office), CEO László Kónya as well as several more colleagues from Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary.
