Thank You/Oarabile Mudongo

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Today, I'm a networking engineering student &mdash; but just three years ago, I had never even touched a computer.
The first time I saw a computer, I was scared to touch it. I was afraid I might break it. My parents didn't have the money to replace it, and neither did I.

But I didn't let that stop me from learning. Soon, I discovered Wikipedia. I started reading all about computers. Then I began editing, too.

To date, I've translated almost 500 articles from English to Setswana &mdash; the official language of Botswana, and spoken by about 4.5 million people throughout southern Africa.

Editing Wikipedia sparked my love for computers and set me on the path toward network engineering, my college major. So I tell you from personal experience: access to the knowledge Wikipedia provides can make a big difference in someone’s life.

I worked hard to get to college. But it wouldn’t have happened without Wikipedia.

And as Wikipedia has helped me, I’ve also helped Wikipedia. I know that Wikipedia is better and stronger because of the work I’ve done... and that’s a very good feeling.

 &mdash; Oarabile Mudongo

''Oarabile is a 21-year-old computer science student from Francistown, Botswana, where he was raised with six sisters and two brothers. His Wikipedia articles focus on topics like tourism, technology and national history. Setswana is actually a second language for Oarabile; his mother tongue is Kalanga. There is no Wikipedia in Kalanga &mdash; at least not yet.''

Video Attribution: by Victor Grigas, under [//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported], from Wikimedia Commons.

Image Attribution: by Karen Sayre, under [//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported], from Wikimedia Commons.