OLPCorps Yale-UW Ghana

Yale-UW-CARE Ghana Team

Name	Major	Univ/Class	Email
Jurist Tan	Ethics, Politics, and Economics	Yale '09	jurist.tan@yale.edu
Hussein Yapit	Computer Science	UW '09	yapith@u.washington.edu

Draft Project Proposal

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Non-political and non-sectarian, CARE operates in more than 65 countries, reaching 50 million people in poor communities. CARE opened its office in Accra, the capital of Ghana, in 1994. Partnering with CARE sub-office in Kumasi, the Yale-UW-CARE Ghana Team will deploy XO laptops in the Ashanti region, Ghana. Specifically, in accordance with CARE’s focus on women and girls’ empowerment, we plan to distribute the laptops to 100 girls in 30 communities under the CARE Ghana’s education project.

Our plan is as follows. Based on consultations with local schools, the District Assembly, and the community leaders in these 30 communities, 100 6-12 year-old girls who have shown exceptional academic excellence and promise will be selected to receive the XO laptops and undergo a two-weeks training/learning session in Kumasi, the district capital, in July during their vacation. Their receipt of XO laptops embodies the notion of empowering “agents of change”; using the laptops, the girls can engage in projects that help their peers and community members overcome a stigma against smart girls with leadership capabilities.

To achieve that end, our training/learning session will facilitate them in a) using the XO laptops and b) planning a community service activity they will continue or start in their respective communities using the XO laptops. This activity can be anything the girls come up with, ranging from teaching their friends to read and count, to producing music with other children in their communities, to informing their parents and neighbors about a specific health issue based on the information they read using XO. Since these girls will probably be the first children in their communities to use this technology, we will ask them to document their actions as “agents of change” for three weeks. Afterward, we will help them compile the results (either in the form of videos, journal entries, music, or others) and gather the girls again to share their experiences with each other, the Ghanaian government, and the world. The girls can upload their documentation online, either on Youtube or on CARE’s website, for the world to see; we can also help them submit their music to be broadcasted in local radio stations. Our hope is to boost their confidence in implementing their capability to execute projects and disseminate results. From this project, the Ghanaian government can learn about the possible uses of media for children’s learning process, while CARE can see the impact of their community-based projects through the girls’ eyes.

After we leave, the girls will have several layers of support:

• Their parents. Though they may not receive their own training, the CARE staff familiar with the communities will help disseminate the information regarding XO laptops to the girls’ parents and consult them on any concerns they may have.
• Their community leaders. CARE gathers these community leaders frequently for various projects in Kumasi. In one of these information sessions, we hope to acquire their support for the project.
• The CARE District Education Office. We plan to purchase at least one additional XO for the CARE staff involved in this project to enable them to provide regional support. With CARE’s long-standing relationship with the communities, the staff will be very helpful in case problems arise. CARE will donate the XO laptop back to OLPC Ghana after it leaves the region.
• The OLPC Ghana Ashanti Region Representative, Ms. Opoku Afriyie Asante, whom we have been in contact with through CARE.

After we leave, the project will thus be taken over by the respective communities and OLPC Ghana with CARE’s assistance. Since the Ghanaian government plans to deploy XOs for every child in Ghana, eventually all children in these 30 communities will receive their XOs as well; we hope by that time, the girls who receive XOs from this project can help guide other children in their own missions to create change.

As a prominent humanitarian NGO, CARE has extensive experience with shipping and handling goods across borders. We will store the XOs in their offices before deployment, both in Accra and in Kumasi. Rather than logistics, our biggest challenge in this project is connectivity. According to preliminary discussions with CARE, though, the 30 targeted communities are relatively close with the district radius not exceeding 50 kilometers. Though rural, most communities already have power and some even Internet connection (thanks to the Columbia University’s Millennium Villages Project), which will ensure connectivity among the XO recipients. Many of the girls also attend the same school, where we can install the main server and Internet connection. Currently our timeline is to devote the first three weeks for logistics and preparation, two weeks for training, three weeks for implementation and follow up, and two weeks for evaluation; should we find extremely challenging technical difficulties during the first two weeks, we will change details of the project as we go along.

In short, the mission of Yale-UW-CARE Ghana Team is not so much to create agents of change as it is to empower them; we believe with the XO laptops, the girls are well-equipped in their mission as agents of change in their communities.

Location

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="4.853889" lon="-2.084167" zoom="11" width="450" height="300" scale="yes"> 4.853889, -2.084167, Kumasi, Ghana </googlemap>