OLPCorps MIT,HARVARD & LEHIGH -KENYA
Introduction
Team
This team is a collaboration of all KenSAP members, a non-profit organization composed of Kenyan students in various top universities across U.S. The group will be represented by a team of three: Charles Kiplagat (MIT; junior in Chemical Engineering), Kipyegon Kitur (Harvard; senior in Chemistry) and Evans Kosgei (Lehigh; sophomore in Computer Science).
Visit Team page to learn more about each member.
Location
We plan to deploy the laptops to Kibarani Primary School in Kilifi[1], Kenya from June to mid-August when the school will be in session. Kilifi, which is located along the Kenyan coast, is not only among the poorest districts in Kenya but also has high malnutrition cases. Being one of the most popular tourist destinations along the Kenyan coast, Kilifi is rife with child prostitutes and primary school dropouts. Most of the families in Kilifi depend on relief food and handouts from tourists for their livelihood.
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-3.632665" lon="39.862518" type="map" zoom="10" width="300" height="300" overview="yes" controls="small">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilifi
-3.615072, 39.85445, Kilifi
</googlemap>
Approach
We shall distribute laptops to pupils in grade five which is composed of two streams with 45 pupils each. The head-teacher has already agreed to setup an extra hour-session each weekday exclusive for training and related activities. We will split the 9-week period into three phases.
First Phase, approximately 4 weeks:
• Meet the local administrators, teachers and parents of Kibarani.
• Introduce children to basic and simple programs in XO laptops
• Train teacher(s).
Second Phase, approximately 3 weeks:
• Introduce children to simple programming tools with active participation of the trained teachers.
• Children are guided to collect simple data about their cultural heritage, food crops grown or available within their vicinity and, if possible, list potential local business opportunities.
Last Phase, approximately 2 weeks:
• Children proceed to create a library for the data collected.
• Convene a closing ceremony in which the two streams will complete as well as present some of their creative works to teachers, parents and other students.
There will be creative sessions throughout the period in which pupils will use the tools and programs in the XO laptops for relevant tasks like writing short-stories(WRITE), drawing(TURTLE ART), designing(ETOY, PAINT), programming(PIPPY). They will also do simple translations of study materials from (WIKIBROWSE) into Swahili and other local languages as well as record story telling sessions, local music and dances and other local cultural events. Recorded material can be archived as part of a long-term project to preserve local cultural practices.
Sustainability & Financial Assistance
As aforementioned, Kibarani primary school will be our local partner and they’ve agreed to sustain the project after we leave by: i. Integrating the cost of sustaining the project in their school budget. ii. Repair and maintain the laptops for children in conjunction with a local IT expert. Moses Mosobo , of KEMRI-Kilifi and Wellcome Trust, will be our point person. He with the teachers and parents of the participating children will see to it that a committee is setup to oversee the matters of sustenance of the project- expansion, repairs and electricity Due to close proximity of Kilifi to the coastal harbor, communication and handling of the package would be easy. The head-teacher has confirmed availability of a safe and expansive storage unit that is owned by the school. The school already has a hired security guard who protects its facilities both day and night. To sustain the project over the coming years, collaboration of KenSAP members will see to it that funds are sought after and channeled towards expansion and sustenance of the project. A number of KenSAP members have already initialized application for consideration of funding from various Foundations, Offices and Fellowships to our project after initial or during deployment. Besides KenSAP Foundation[2] which has already enlisted its financial support, here is the rest of the list:
