OLPCorps CMU RIT AN Nigeria

Proposal

We will deploy at St. Paul's Primary School in Nigeria, which has 420 students. Many of the students are orphans or from poor families. The proprietor of the school is related to one of our group members. We will work closely with the proprietor and teachers to integrate the XO laptop into the daily lessons in Math, Social Studies, English, and Science. In addition, we will start a program to teach the children blogging and video blogging. The program will 1) raise awareness of African issues around the world and 2) teach the children to write and communicate effectively. We will create the blogs / video blogs with a content management system such as Drupal and host them on a dedicated virtual server such as Amazon EC2. We will cross post the content to established sites such as YouTube.

About St. Paul's

Saint Paul Africa Nusery / Primary school Ata Ediene Abak Local Government Area Akwa Ibom state Nigeria was established in 1990 by Elder Joshua Peter Umoh. He saw the need of children's education as a builder building laying a foundation before building the house. His passion was for the poor and orphans in the community. The school was mainly supported by Churches and community members. The community and the church also see the need of children's education from 2 years to 12 years as the basic foundation and support the school wholeheartedly. The main occupation in the community is farming, while some of the children will dig sand from the rivers to sell for construction of the house. There are also petty traders. the cash crop there is Palm tree, coconut, and coa-coa. The food crops are cassava, plantain, yam, rice, beans, banana, fruit like mango pineapple,pears apple quaver, orange etc.

About a recent revelation about computers

After the death of Elder Joshua, I (Okon Sunday David) and the proprietor's son (Mfon Joshua) continued to manage the school till it reached the total number of 420 students. In the year 2006, Okon left the school to study Theology at Africa Nazarene University. He realized that high education is impossible without computer knowledge. He failed nearly all his exams because he did not have basic knowledge of the computer to do his assignments. It was a big shame for Okon because in Kenya nearly all students who came to university had a basic knowledge of the computer. Okon started thinking about the students in Saint Paul's Africa Nursery school: how their education will be hindered without computer training. He realized that education, office, home, business, technology, calculation, etc. may be managed efficiently through use of a computer, and to succeed in today's life one must acquire knowledge of computers.

About Our Vision

The computer literate will help the Government to have standard and quality service in the society. The children will not suffer in University on how to write term papers. Technology can help to eradicate poverty in the community and give children hope for future. The skills learned by integrated curriculum (in every class, using creative exercises to enhance specific classwork) will open their minds in a new way. The computer will be introduced to the children to teach them on how connecting to others relates to all subjects such as (Mathematics, English, Geography, History, Science and other ,) as the basic foundation. We expect to use the social networking component of the XO laptops to educate students in the importance of collaboration and networking together.

Group Members

• Okon Sunday David is a Theology student at Africa Nazarene University. He has worked at St. Paul's before and is related to the proprietor. St. Paul's is located in his home village.
• Becca Nelson is a student at RIT and has extensive experience working with non-profits in Africa. She has specifically worked at computer training centers in Kenya.
• Bryant Lee holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He has created and maintained previous Web 2.0 sites and has managed computer servers. He has published numerous scientific papers. www.cs.cmu.edu/~bryantl

Schedule

Week 1: Arrival to Saint Paul Africa Nusery school Week 2-3: One week teachers training - how to integrate curriculum into the students' daily lives Week 4-5: After School Program to accustom kids to using the laptops Week 6-8: Begin using laptops for daily classwork.

Budget

Airfare = $6000 (3 x 2000) Food = $1000 Projector = $700 Transport to school/town/markets/etc. = $100 Generator $500 Couple, plug-in, socket and wiring $200 Team cell phone = $25 Cell phone credit = $30 Internet Connection = $500 (need to expand on it).