OLPCorps TulaneSPHTM SierraLeone
The US-based team would include two masters of public health (MPH) students and a recent MPH graduate from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a school psychology PhD student from the University at Buffalo. With a strong interest in educational development and background and experience in international public health, the team is well balanced. The MPH team members also have experience in Kenema, connections with local organizations and resources, and university support.
Our Sierra Leone partner organization is Defense for Children International—Sierra Leone (http://www.dci-is.org/), with a subsection in Kenema. DCI-SL works to promote children’s rights through advocacy, empowerment and education. Other organizations based in Kenema, including Conciliation Resources, Ben Hirsh, and local schools, will be incorporated into the program to assist with outreach and targeting the program to vulnerable children.
As part of a previous project, the MPH students interviewed DCI-SL, learning of gaps and recommendations to improve health and human rights in Kenema. In addition to providing advocacy and financial support to children in the justice system, DCI-SL, Kenema, implemented a computer skills training program with the help of a local women’s organization. However, with limited funding and resources, they can not currently expand the program to include younger children. Many children visit the DCI-SL offices in Kenema each day (approximately 50-60), and DCI-SL noted the need for a health education program in addition to enhancing the educational system. Children in Kenema are often limited to going summer school due to a lack of funds and the schools are overcrowded and underfunded. With a need to learn technological skills, improve health, and promote education, this program to provide and introduce Kenema’s vulnerable children to OLPC computers would match the organization’s and children’s needs. Children have time, energy, and innate ability to learn how to use computers in innovative and creative ways. Through this program, we will tap into the intrinsic desire children have to learn, giving them a new frontier in which to do so.
Our project would include self-selected children, with special outreach to vulnerable children. Our aim would be to target children with whom DCI-SL is working, building on the relationships and connections already established. Furthering our goal to target vulnerable children, we would then reach out to high-risk families that are involved in other local organizations. These organizations would possibly including Ben Hirsh, a local organization that works with street children, or Conciliation Resources, an international organization that promotes community peace building with a special focus on children and youth.
Participants would be self-selected, focusing on children age six to twelve. However, older children and family members are welcome to participate in the health education component. Once the children are equipped with laptops, we would set aside two weeks to training them on the laptops’ functionality. Six to eight year olds would be taught in the morning and nine to twelve year olds in the afternoon. Each child will be encouraged to invite a family member to accompany him/her during the course. The curriculum will focus on engaging the students in activities that help them to learn the power of the laptops firsthand. After the children are trained, we will ask them to come up with a relevant health issue that they will then research and present upon. We will work with them for a few days so that they can brainstorm topic ideas, create research questions, and identify learning objectives. Some ideas include: mapping the distance between clean water sources in their neighborhood, learning how to protect against Lassa Fever, or investigating the nutritional composition of their diet. Whatever they choose, we will ask that they work with a relative on their project and present their findings to the other participants through a multimedia (song, pictures, movies, etc.) presentation using their XO laptops.
By working with a family member, we hope to encourage sharing and collaboration. We found a desperate need for adults to have computer and typing skills. A child, gifted with time, patience, and curiosity, could be a catalyst, inspiring and empowering their whole family.
Fortunately, we can guarantee support for the continuation of the project. Each summer, roughly a dozen Tulane public health students travel to Kenema in order to work on community projects and would certainly be eager to participate in this. In addition, we would work to involve technology students from Kenema’s Eastern Polytechnic Institute with the hope that they may be interested in contributing to the program, perhaps as mentors for the children.
