OLPCorps Harvard Ghana

Project Summary:

We are a team of X undergraduates from Harvard University passionate about technology and development in Africa. The team is comprised of Timothy Kotin (Ghana) and Abel Boreto (Kenya), who currently concentrate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Government respectively. We are excited about the opportunity to work in an under-privileged community and forever impact the lives of children through technology.

Motivation and feasibility:

We plan to undertake the project in four neighboring primary schools that have low pupil enrollment. These schools are located in Saboba district in the Northern Region of Ghana, and will be in session between mid June and early August 2009, which coincides with our project timeline. Like many other parts of northern Ghana, Saboba is one of the most deprived townships in terms of development. The project will thus have a bigger impact on the education of the children in these schools because it would put them at parity with students in better-resourced communities. Timothy Kotin, who hails from Saboba, spent the formative years of his education in a public school in the Northern Region. It is thus with a thorough appreciation of the challenges that confront children in similar circumstances that we are embarking on this project. We believe that the potential of children in Saboba, and the world over, should not be defined by their specific circumstances. Saboba is also ideal for this project because it has electricity supply, mobile and fixed telephony, and limited internet connection.

Target group, saturation and connection:

We plan to distribute the laptops to children in the 4th grade in each of the four schools. We chose the 4th grade because at this stage, most of the children can read and write in English and thus the laptops will be of greater benefit to them. We plan to collaborate with the teachers and the administration of the four schools in order to integrate the laptops into the class environment. Classes in these four schools end at 2 pm and we plan with the help of the school administration to create an extra session where children can learn and practice to use the laptops in less structured, but more creative activities. We also plan to set-up a blog where the children can take turns to write about their experiences, stories and lives. The blog will also help the children learn from each other and also improve their reading and writing skills. We also plan to hold inter-school events among the children in the participating schools. This will include competitions on different skills e.g. programming, writing, design, individual and team projects etc. The competitions will serve as additional motivation that will bring out the creativity of the children, and also help them become more conversant with the XOs.

Local Partners:

In addition to the schools we will be directly working with, our other local partners will be World Vision's Saboba Area Development Program (ADP) and the Saboba District Assembly. World Vision International is an NGO that engages in extensive development projects in rural communities all over the world. World Vision's Saboba ADP has agreed to support this project as part of their permanent development initiatives to improve Saboba's health, education, water supply and local entrepreneurship. They have also agreed to receive and provide safe storage for the 230 kg package before deployment.

Post-deployment Sustainability:

To ensure the sustainability of the project, we will work in conjunction with Mr. Jacob Kotin of World Vision Ghana to set up a project committee comprised of representatives from the World Vision's Saboba ADP, Ghana Education Service, the district assembly and teachers and parents of the children. Our OLPCorps team will work with the committee to ensure the maintenance of the XOs and other hardware, plan and coordinate inter-school competitions and collaborations, and explore potential expansion of the project. Support for the long-term sustainability of the project will be in the form of fundraising efforts at Harvard through organizations such as Harvard African Student Association (HASA), Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa (YALDA), Harvard College Global Hunger Initiative (HGHI); grants from the Idea Translation Lab at Harvard, Davis Projects for Peace ; and technical support from World Vision's IT personnel in Saboba and The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE).