OLPCorps BU WM Stellenbosch South Africa

Team Members:

Hillary Weimont, MA student at Boston University, International Relations and African Studies
Eric Scalzo, JD student at William and Mary School of Law
David Rock, MA student at the University of Stellenbosch, History
Alexandra Rock, Honours/MA student at the University of Stellenbosch, Economics

Proposal:

Our team consists of four graduate students, all of whom studied abroad in the deployment area and volunteered with our partnering organization and two of whom are currently living five miles from the deployment site. We believe that our experience in the area and our strong connection to our partnering organization, combined with our faith in the power of education to empower the next generation of leaders and our motivation to make this project succeed, make our team ideally-suited for the OLPC Africa Program.

The township of Kayamandi is located just outside of Stellenbosch, South Africa and is home to 32,000 residents, half of whom live in informal housing with access only to severely strained water and sanitation infrastructure. Despite these conditions, there has been a marked investment in youth development initiatives in the community. The children are proud of their roots yet determined to succeed. If given the opportunity to improve their own situation, they will take it, receiving support from their community along the way.

The International Student Organization Stellenbosch (ISOS) Kayamandi Project is a student-led volunteer program at the University of Stellenbosch, host to over 200 international students every semester, nearly half of which volunteer in some capacity with the ISOS Kayamandi Project. To learn more about the ISOS Kayamandi Project and its programs, please visit [www.sun.ac.za/isos].

The ISOS Kayamandi Project has agreed to integrate our OLPC project with the after-school program it runs three days a week at the Ikaya Primary School in Kayamandi. This program is part of a bridging program for seventh-grade learners from Kayamandi prior to entering high school in 8th grade. In the past, this program has focused on English tutoring, and while it is no longer limited to this, we believe that the XOs could serve as an effective tool for learning in allowing the students to develop their own reading and writing skills.

At the moment, 82 learners are currently enrolled with the after-school program. (The school is composed of over 1600 pupils with over 250 in seventh grade. We work with those seventh-graders chosen by their teachers.)

During the summer, we will work together with the ISOS Kayamandi Project to deploy the laptops and plan lessons to ensure their maximum utility, with assistance from international student volunteers. After our team departs, the ISOS Kayamandi Project will ensure the continuation of the project, coordinating volunteers and planning new and innovative projects for students.

We will be able to receive and store the equipment at the University of Stellenbosch International Office, and the University of Stellenbosch IT Department has agreed to provide technical support as needed.

The students are on break from June to mid-July, though we are planning to select the students in this program who have the best attendance records and will be available over the holidays to participate.

Once the students are back in school, the afterschool program will resume and we will be able to work with all the students in the program. In the weeks before school resumes, we will use our time to establish ourselves in the community, set up the equipment, plan lessons and projects, train volunteers, begin working with the children who are available, and begin writing a training manual that future volunteers will be able to utilize.

The students at Ikaya Primary are native Xhosa speakers, but have been taught English since the fourth grade and have able to effectively communicate with English-speaking volunteers in the past. Two of our team members will be living in Kayamandi as part of a homestay established through our local contacts. This will allow the team to more fully integrate into the community and begin engaging some of the students over the school holiday.

“Teach a man to fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a child to fish and he will feed the world.” This proverb illustrates just how the OLPC program should work. If given the opportunity to enhance their own learning, these children will take it. By equipping these students with the educational tools they need to learn and grow, we can help these children to help themselves. As the future leaders of their generation, these children hold the fate of their community, country, and continent in their hands. Through our programs we help to foster self-motivated learning and develop in these children the confidence and determination that will help them to achieve their own goals and aspirations.