The Campus Functions

ICT and the SAs

The IT Center Department (IT-D) is shared between SLAK and Learning Lions and reports to the Campus Administration Board. It runs the organisation's digital infrastructure and the IT Center building, and it supports every department and programme.

1. The System Admin Team, the SAs, manages connectivity, networks, servers, devices, helpdesk support and the ICT inventory. It is led by a System Admin Lead.
2. The IT-Space Team manages the building for the training and the coworking space, coordinates cleaning with the Upkeep Team, and arranges rentals of rooms for other teams and of desks at the coworking space.

How to work with the SAs:

1. ICT requests go by email to request@learninglions.org. The SAs run an open-source Request Tracker behind that address; every mail opens a numbered ticket and the SAs work from the queue. A friendlier interface to it is wanted later, not now.
2. The SAs' shared list, systemadmin@learninglions.org, receives the system alerts: backup results from Mufasa, hosting notices, domain reports.
3. Mufasa is the campus NAS, a Synology. It holds the BootCamp content as read-only shares and a writable folder per trainee, which the SAs create with the rights before a cohort arrives. Trainees reach it through mapped network drives on the BootCamp wifi. Mufasa syncs to Google Drive, so the same files open in Google Drive in a browser when Mufasa is down. Trainees do not install the Google Drive app.
4. BootCamp trainees rent their laptops for the course; the kits call the trainee the renter. The SAs set the fleet up before week one.
5. Hosting and domains: the organisation's DNS and mail hosting sit with a web host, with a cloud account for servers and Cloudflare Pages for Darasa Hub. Printing has its own address.

Welfare

The Welfare Team sits in the Training Department. It gives learner-centred welfare support, including the matron and daycare functions, and it is the primary safeguarding interface for learners. Its mandate is shared with Campus Management and with the Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee. Medical care comes through the Community Programs Department's medical dispensary, with the Welfare Team coordinating referrals.

Each BootCamp cohort has a dedicated matron on the ground in student housing, making sure gender separation is respected and the rules on curfews and access are kept, until a separate girls' housing block can be built. The matron for trainees also sits on the committee as its first-line support.

Training

The Training Department (TR-D) belongs to Learning Lions and reports to the Operations Director. It delivers the LEAP journey and prepares learners for digital work and further education, with targets of seventy per cent women and fifty per cent refugees among its learners.

The department is led by a department head, with a training lead, a curriculum lead and a career track lead. It holds a weekly operations review and a fortnightly curriculum meeting, and it works on Asha. The training material lives on Darasa Hub, one page per session.

Administration

Campus Management

The Campus Management Department (CM-D) is SLAK's and is the backbone of the campus: everything that is not teaching and not ICT. It is led by a Senior Campus Manager on a performance-based contract, with a background in professional hospitality or lodge management sought, supported by at least two management assistants and a lead for each branch. The Campus Manager leads all the branches, mentors the assistants and leads, answers for the service and financial results, aligns with the two directors and holds one vote on the campus board. Its two aims are the quality of campus life and financial sustainability, with learning and wellbeing taking priority over income. The department has its own page and chart.

Finance

The Finance Department (FN-D) is shared by SLAK and Lions Strength and reports to the Finance Director and the SGB: the Accounting Team for bookkeeping, payments, reconciliations and statements; the Procurement Team for purchasing and suppliers; the Central Store Team at the welcome area, where every procured item arrives and is recorded before it goes to a department; and the Reporting Team for donor reporting and impact measurement, shared with Communication. The department has its own page and chart.

Human Resources

The Human Resources Department (HR-D) is shared and leads people and culture: recruitment, onboarding, contracts, performance management, HR policies, staff welfare, grievances and disciplinary processes, working with the committee on safeguarding and with every department on workforce planning. The department has its own page and chart.

Communication

The Communication Department (COM-D) is shared by all the entities and reports to the Operations Director and the SGB: the Communication Team for publications, the digital presence and media; the Partnerships Team for donors, funding partners, job placement partners and visitors; and the Fundraising Team, which coordinates with the sister fundraising entities abroad. Mid 2026 agendas call this department External Relations.

How the Campus Talks

The decided platform is Google Chat, with spaces per department, cohort and project, and a locked attendance channel; WhatsApp and SMS are the emergency fallback. Staff without a smartphone or without reading are paired with a buddy who posts for them, there is a short spoken morning briefing in the local languages, a voice-note line, and colour-coded notice boards for changes on campus.

Asha

Asha is the online platform the Training Department runs on: the learner's record of tasks, badges and the growing profile from the first cohort onwards, the department's meetings, updates and KPIs, and the evaluators' work. Submitted work goes into Asha until The Hub's own form takes over. Asha is a partner company, not a department; its founder advises the organisation and sits in the restructuring meetings. The other departments moved their meeting notes and KPI reporting in 2026 to a separate tool built in-house.

The Kitchen

The Catering Team, called the Cafeteria and Food Services branch in the campus blueprint, runs all food preparation and distribution on campus from a central kitchen with industrial appliances. It serves trainees, staff, guests and the conference area, and it is meant to supply a bistro at the ICT Center and a small restaurant for outside visitors. Day-to-day management is by a Cafeteria Lead, supported by kitchen staff, bakers and service staff. The blueprint's priorities are hygiene and equipment upgrades, a wider standardised menu, cold storage and food waste, and moving the kitchen onto electricity as the mini-grid grows. Meals are ordered and paid for in advance; complaints, compliments and special arrangements go to the kitchen's own address.

Housing

The Housing Team, called Rental and Student Housing in the blueprint, manages all housing for trainees, staff and long-term volunteers: the South East Village for trainees, the South West Village houses kept for staff and volunteers, and the Tech Manyattas and Concept Houses. Units are billed to the Training Department when trainees use them and to staff and volunteers when rented, so that running costs are recovered; larger works need donor funding. Repairs are done by the Construction branch and billed to Housing.

The trainee housing holds four to a room in bunk beds, and its connected upper floors make full gender separation hard. The blueprint's answer is a dedicated matron per cohort now and a new girls' housing block later, so that the present village becomes boys only. Accessibility, finishing the incomplete units and better furnishing are the other priorities.

The Hospitality Team runs seven guest units in the South West Village for visitors and digital nomads, one of the campus's income streams, with a conference and guest centre as the long-term vision.

The Community Side

The Community Programs Department (CP-D), with its Agricultural, Medical and ECD teams, and the Loropio Girls Secondary School project (LG-D) belong to Lions Strength and answer to the Community Programs Board. They are not campus functions, but the campus serves them: the mini-grid powers the school, the water system supplies it, and the medical dispensary treats trainees on referral.

The Digital Enterprises

The coworking space at the ICT Center houses independent digital enterprises grouped as the Digital Enterprise Department (DE-D): Digital Lions, the fair trade digital agency; Resilient People, a digital sales force; and Tech Dada, which supports young women in their digital careers. They manage themselves and use the campus's services; no one leads them from the centre.