OLPCorps TulaneSPHTM SierraLeone

Proposal

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. This team brings together rich backgrounds and experiences in educational development and international public health. Local staff includes a local computer technician and the staff at Defense for Children International-Sierra Leone (DCI-SL; http://www.dci-is.org/). The MPH team members also have extensive experience in Kenema and university support.

Our partner organization, DCI-SL, works to promote children’s rights through advocacy, empowerment and education. Sierra Leonean children continue to recover from the aftermath of the 1991-2001 Civil War. In July 2007, the government of Sierra Leone passed a Child Rights Act (http://www.sierra-leone.org/Laws/2007-7p.pdf) greatly expanding the legal rights of children. During this critical time in Sierra Leone’s history, DCI-SL is working to translate legal action into a paradigm shift with regards to the treatment of children. Their programs help DCI-SL to connect to children, open doors of communication and increase awareness of unjust situations. Introducing the OLPC Program would help to reinforce and strengthen this national movement.

During a needs assessment carried out during summer 2008, the MPH students interviewed DCI-SL, learning of their efforts towards and recommendations for improving health and human rights in Kenema. In addition to providing advocacy and financial support to children in the justice system, DCI-SL implements a computer skills training program attracting 50-60 children each day. However, with limited funding and resources, they are currently unable to expand the program to include younger children. In addition to funding, DCI-SL noted the need for health education programs and enhanced educational systems. Though they desperately want to attend, a large proportion of Kenema’s children do not have the money for summer school. With an aim 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.

Our aim would be to target the vulnerable children with whom DCI-SL is already 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. By working closely with these organizations, children involved in the program will become better integrated into the social support networks that exist in their community.

Participants would be self-selected, focusing on children ages six to twelve. Once the children are equipped with laptops, we would set aside two weeks to train them on the laptops’ full functionality (http://wiki.laptop.org/images/5/5d/Learning_Manual_V2.pdf). Younger children would be taught in the morning and older children 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, energy, and innate ability to learn through new and creative means, could be a catalyst, inspiring and empowering their whole family. Fortunately, we can guarantee support for the continuation of the project. Each summer, a dozen Tulane public health students travel to Kenema in order to work on community projects and would be eager to participate in this. In addition, we would work to involve education and technology students from Kenema’s Eastern Polytechnic Institute with the hope that they may be interested in contributing to the program year-round.

Budget

Tulane SPHTM Sierra Leone Program

Item	Cost per person	Number of people	Total cost
Plane tickets	USA to Rwanda to Sierra Leone roundtrip = $2,587% USA to Sierra Leone roundtrip = $1,571^	2 2	$5,174 $3,142
Visas	$131 per US citizen	4	$524
Vaccinations	$100 (yellow fever - MPH members already have vaccination)	1	$100
Malaria medications	$40 per person	4	$160
Food and accommodations	Room = $4/night (2 people/room at Pastoral Centre, Kenema) Food = $4/day	4 4	$560 $1120
In-country transportation	Transportation in Kenema = $50/person=	4	$200
School and program supplies	$10 per student	100	$1,000
Stipend for local technology support	$250 for 9 weeks of support	1	$250
Total			$10,980+

^% vayama.com (searched 27 March 2009) JFK (5 June) – KGL (6 June) KGL (18 June) – FNA (19 June) FNA (25 Aug) – JFK (26 Aug)

^ vayama.com (searched 27 March 2009) JFK (18 June) – FNA (19 June) FNA (25 Aug) – JFK (26 Aug)

⁼ Transportation for team members and computers from the airport in Lungi to Kenema provided by Tulane Lassa Fever Program, based in Kenema.

⁺ Due to the high cost of international transportation, the team will work to raise the additional expenses through local networks, school funding, and other available resources.

The United States Team

Emily Cercone is a second year masters of public health student, focusing on international health and development. She worked last summer in Kenema, Sierra Leone, as a team member of the Doctors for Global Health (DGH) Practicum Working Group. The Working Group identified international, national and local NGOs working in Kenema District as well as healthcare leaders, including the district medical officer, nurses in leadership positions and doctors in the government hospital. Emily's interests include learning French, decorating Ukrainian eggs, and listening to Coldplay. She hails from Buffalo, New York, USA.

Katie McCarthy is a recent graduate of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she focused on international public health. She was also a member of the DGH Practicum Working Group in Kenema last summer. Currently, she is working as a project assistant organizing patient recruitment into a study to improve doctor patient communication about cancer prevention in community-based health clinics in New Orleans. She enjoys Wawa, decorating her room with Mardi Gras throws, and watching old movies. She hails from Audubon, Pennsylvania, USA.

Katie Robinette is also a second year masters of public health student, focusing on international health and development and a former DGH Practicum Working Group member. She is a strong supporter of women's rights and wants to work to improve women's health. This March, she was the coordinator for the Tulane SPHTM/SOM Vagina Monologues, proceeds of which support Women with a Vision, a local NGO. Her activities include being an Officially Ordained Clergy Person of the Church of Spiritual Humanism, learning Arabic, and listening to YoYo Ma. She hails from Yucaipa, Califonia, USA.

Brian Gangloff is a second year PhD student in school counseling at the University at Buffalo. He has a strong interest in educational development of underprivileged children. His interests include psychology and kids, food (particularly if someone else is cooking), and ball parks. He hails from Buffalo, New York, USA.

Our Local Partner

Defence for Children International - Sierra Leone (http://www.dci-is.org/)

Mission

Defence for Children International is dedicated to ensuring on-going, practical, systematic and concerted international action directed towards promoting and protecting the rights of the child, as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), its optional protocols, and all the other human rights instruments.

Vision

Children should enjoy and exercise their rights in a just and responsible society.

News

DCI-Sierra Leone Hosts First National Conference on Juvenile Justice in Freetown. With the adoption of the new Child Rights Act 2007, Sierra Leone joins the ranks of countries with strong legislation to promote and protect the rights of children in the justice system. With this framework in place, DCI-Sierra Leone held a conference to explore and reflect on the strategies for ensuring that laws and policies translate into reality for children in Sierra Leone.

The conference was entitled “National Conference on Juvenile Justice: A Practical Approach” and took place from March 19-20, 2009 in Freetown (http://www.dci-is.org/db/nl/up_files/DCI-SL_conference.pdf).

Background of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country of 6.2 million people located on the West African coast. Despite its tropical climate, beautiful beaches which might fuel a tourist economy, and abundance of natural resources (diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, and chromite), Sierra Leone ranks last in the world on the 2008 United Nations Human Development Index, with a life expectancy of 41 years and literacy rate of 35%. Following independence from Great Britain in 1961, years of ineffectual and sometimes corrupt government, compounded by foreign influences, eventually culminated in civil war in 1991. The war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, displacement of more than 2 million people, and destruction of much of the country’s infrastructure before finally ending, with the intervention of UN Peacekeepers, in 2002. Democracy in Sierra Leone is now slowly being reestablished, with peaceful elections in 2007, and the infrastructure being rebuilt.

Since 2004, Tulane University has maintained a research and training project in the town of Kenema, Sierra Leone, the third largest city in the country (population ~130,000), in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the World Health Organization, and other partners. The Tulane program is based on the grounds of KGH, a 350-bed reference center for the southeastern region of the country where a vast array of tropical diseases is seen daily. The historical focus of the program has been research on Lassa fever, a major public health problem in the region, although smaller projects on malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses have also been conducted. In conjunction with the research, Tulane maintains an active training program in Sierra Leone with 20-30 trainees per year at stages ranging from undergraduate to post-doctoral students engaged in a variety of different research and public health projects (http://www.sph.tulane.edu/tropmed/Sierra%20Leone%20Field%20Course/introduction.htm). Students are often paired with Sierra Leonean counterparts engaged in similar disciplines and projects.