OLPCorps IU South Africa

Ntswaki, a Student from Mmaweshi Primary School

One Here...One There

One Here...One There is a non-profit organization driven to foster growth in sub-Saharan Africa through primary education - the best long term solution for ending the world's worst cycle of poverty, hunger, and disease. It's all about one here helping one there.

Members

OHOT Members

• Paul Commons

Founder and President of OHOT. International Studies major, Class of 2009

• Savanah Franklin

Vice President of OHOT. Economics and International Studies majors, Class of 2009

• Joseph Peoni

Public Finance Major, Class of 2010

• Carolyn Commons

International Studies Major, Class of 2012

• Bryan Stuart

Economic Consulting and Public Policy Analysis

• Joseph Shikany

Business Marketing and Operations Management Major, Class of 2009

• Gordon Lang

Nursing Major, Class of 2012

• Joseph Delehanty

Economic, History, and German Majors, Class of 2009

OHOT Members traveling to South Africa through OLPCorps

Savanah Franklin

Joseph Peoni

Carolyn Commons

Joseph Shikany

Gordon Lang

Joseph Delehanty

August 2008 Deployment (Haenertsburg, South Africa)

Indiana University’s chapter of One Here…One There (OHOT), raised funds and purchased 150 XO laptops through OLPC's Give Many Campaign. 100 of these laptops were donated to three participating schools (Mmaweshi Primary School, Katane Primary School, Driehoek Primary School) in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The twelve OHOT students spent three weeks in Haenertsburg working with the schools and teaching the students how to use the laptops. The teachers also began training on how to use the laptops as well as how to integrate them into daily class curriculum. Locally, Thusanang Trust, and more specifically Shelley Milstein, who took on the project, helped with the distribution and much of the set-up that went along with the project. Multiple people from the Kliptown project in Soweto, Johannesburg came to help with the deployment. This included Neo Masilo, the group’s IT specialist, as well as others who were extremely valuable with their knowledge of the workings of the laptops and the local languages.

Today, the project is still going strong with the continued help from Thusanag Trust. Fears that the laptops would not last in this type of environment were dismissed with the fact that only one laptop has broken to this date and not a single one has gone missing or been stolen. The laptops are maintained with generators at the two schools which do not have electricity. There are still problems with access to the Internet, but these problems are continuously being worked on. Kliptown is still involved in the success of this deployment by continuously helping with IT problems and the maintenance or the laptops. OHOT is still funding and looking for new funds for the continuation of the project.

Involvement With OLPC

One Here...One There had no official affiliation with One Laptop Per Child during the 2008 deployment. OHOT raised all necessary funds for the project and bought the 150 laptops with these funds.

We were in contact with OLPC about our independent deployment throughout it, as well as afterward. Now we would like to pursue a more official relationship with One Laptop Per Child through OLPCorps to continue to advocate and promote OLPC and OHOT's goals.

Location

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