OLPCorps UCBerkeley Uganda

Vision

Our goal is to empower the children through exposure to a world of knowledge otherwise unreachable. Youth are naturally more inquisitive and eager to explore than adults, and this gives them an advantage in the use of new technology. In a “trickle up” theory, they will discover new ways of thinking and problem solving that they can then share with their older caretakers and community members. We intend to assign both group and individual projects that will activate their imagination and challenge them to solve problems that directly influence their lives. Once internet connectivity has been established, we will arrange access to a blog and ask that throughout the school year the children upload stories, pictures, and ideas they have developed through the use of their laptops. This will encourage them to explore the internet and continue creating new uses for their existing XO applications. We will give them the tools to upgrade and adjust the XO’s programming, so that as they outgrow applications, they can install more advanced software and allow the laptop grow with them.

Team Members

• Pedagogical Lead: Tiffany Hsieh - Political Science, Economics '10
• Logistical Lead: Marie Collins - Political Economy, Global Poverty and Practice (minor) '11
• Technical Lead: Billy Grissom - Computer Science '09

Location

We will deploy 100 laptops in the village of Buwaiswa, a small rural community in eastern Uganda. We will visit the village briefly from June 4th to June 7th, before traveling to the Kigali orientation, and then return from June 18th to August 20th for the 9 week deployment.

Children

We will work with 100 students age 6-12 in the Buwaiswa Primary School. Although the children will be on break between June and August, our local partner has offered to make arrangements with the school that we allow us to hold routine classes for the duration of the nine week stay. We will assess the daily schedule of village life, and choose workshop times that will ensure the most attendance and student availability. Ugandan classrooms are taught in English, so we should be able to directly communicate with the children. However, because development tends to be more efficient, effective, and eagerly-embraced when local people become leaders of the process, we will be collaborating intensively with teachers and members of our partner NGO. We hope to give them the tools to teach the children themselves, by providing technical training and lesson plans. We will be there every step of the way to help them, but believe that the program will be most effective if we transfer much of the responsibility of implementation to community members.

Local Partner

The Organization for Good Life of the Marginalized is an non-governmental organization headquartered in Jinja, Uganda. Their organization objectives are to:

1. To improve the welfare and socio-economic development of orphaned children and their elderly grandmothers
2. To contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS among the marginalized and to work towards the improvement of sexual reproductive health & rights
3. To empower HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children, grannies, women, and youth to access economic resources so as to reduce poverty.

They will be our primary resource in fostering community interest and support to create a sustainable program in Buwaiswa. OGLM runs the Buwaiswa Chilren’s Home, which houses HIV/AIDS orphans. They maintain close communication with the Buwaiswa Primary School where we will do our actually laptop deployment. We will work with two of OGLM’s local staff in every facet of the laptop deployment, so that when we leave they will have the full range of knowledge necessary to continue teaching the children, and assisting in the repairs and “end-of-life” removal of the laptops. Hellen Lunkuse, OGLM’s Children’s Computer Trainer and Instructor, will join us in the Kigali training workshop in June. We are putting particular emphasis on training OGLM staff because they have shown overwhelming support and interest in maintain a long-term commitment to the program. Because school is out of session during the June-August months, we will be holding workshops with OGLM in the primary school, but may not have the opportunity to work with the children’s academic-year teachers. Also, due to the possibility of teacher turnover, we feel that OGLM will provide a more stable base for program maintenance than primary school teacher training alone.