Travelling classroom bridges digital divide in Benin

Schoolchildren from Avrankou-Houeze school learn how to assemble a computer during a training in the BloLab container.

School was out, but on an afternoon in rural Benin, 11-year-old Ambroise rushed to a tree-shaded parking lot, his day's learning not yet done.

Parked beneath the cola trees was a lorry trailer loaded with computers – the kind of technology that few students in the West African country had ever seen, much less touched. Designed by BloLab, a non-profit group based in Benin's largest city Cotonou, the 13m trailer is powered by 12 solar panels and equipped with enough laptops to give rural students a chance to familiarise themselves with computers, which most families cannot afford.