OLPCorps UniversityName Deployment Country: Difference between revisions
m (Hello everyone, we are a team of students attending shoreline community college.Our mission is not to just give out lap tops to the Gambian children, but to also teach them the basics about computer) |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
1. Project Title & Shipment Detail |
|||
SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE_THE GAMBIA. |
|||
Name of Project: Ruhiira Millennium Villages Girls’ Empowerment Through ICT for Education |
|||
Shipping Address: |
|||
OLPCorps Proposal |
|||
Mbarara University of Science and Technology |
|||
Country: The Gambia_ |
|||
Faculty of Development Studies |
|||
Team: Fatou Gaye, Fatou Darboe & Abdoulie Samateh |
|||
P.O. Box 1410 |
|||
Fatou Darboe, Banking and Finance major, Fatou Gaye, Accounting major, and Abdoulie Samateh, Nursing major, are the members of our team. We presently attend Shoreline Community College in Seattle, Washington. Our objective is to focus on the rural areas. The children in the rural areas would benefit the most from receiving lap tops because they are not exposed to much technology. Most of the children in the rural areas live far from the city so they are not familiar with computers. These lap tops would give them the opportunity to explore various ways of learning. |
|||
Mbarara |
|||
This project will enable us to give out lap tops to the children of Gunjur Primary School, located in Gunjur, The Gambia. The Gambia is the smallest country in Africa, located in West Africa. It is surrounded by Senegal; its economy is dominated by agriculture, fishing and tourism. It has a population of “1,735,464 (July 2008 EST.)” The economy of the Gambia is unstable and lately life is very hard in the rural areas. Gunjur is located in one of those rural areas; we will serve the 5th graders at Gunjur Primary School. We chose this school because most of the people in that area are lower income families, and they cannot afford quality education for their children. We want to teach the children the basics about computers so that it can make education much more exciting for them and change their lives to a better and brighter future. |
|||
Number of Laptops You Request: 100 laptops |
|||
Our local partner is called QCell Company Limited. It is a new company started by Muhammed Jah, CEO and Managing Director of QuantumNet Group, a private company created in 1988 to meet The Gambia’s need for network service, information technology solutions and education. They provide fast, stable and secure internet connection to corporate and some residential customers. http://www.qanet.gm. QCell Company Limited was started by Muhammed Jah in 2008. It is one of only four GSM service providers in Gambia. http://www.qcell.gm. |
|||
We would carry out the project between June and August. The children will be out of school by this time, but they will be having summer classes. The summer classes are four days a week. We have made arrangements with the school principal to include the computer workshops in their schedule. We plan to go to the school every Monday through Thursday per week to help them operate the laptops and show them how to make good use of them so that they will be familiar with the laptops before we leave. We are willing to spend enough time with the students during school days and make sure that they gain knowledge from it. Two guys from QCell will go with us to the school to help the children learn how to use the lap tops. Each of us on the team has advanced computer skills and communication is not a problem because we speak the same language. We also have family in the Gambia so we have a place to stay, which will reduce our room and board costs significantly. |
|||
2. Team Participants |
|||
QCell Company Limited will follow up on our project by sending one of their representatives to the school once we are gone to continue to teach the children to make sure that they understand how to use the lap tops. After the workshop during summer school, the children can take the lap tops home because they would have already been comfortable and confident enough to access their lap tops at home. QCell will assist with making sure that they are able to have internet service at home and at school. Secondly, they have offered to voluntarily fix the lap tops in case of any problems. Once the instruction is completed, they are also willing to frequently keep in touch with the school’s principal and make visits to the school to make sure that the students are making the best use of this opportunity and by assisting other students at the school in learning how to use the laptop. We will also be in touch with the organization and the school principal to know what’s going on with the children with their laptops, whether it is advancing their education and also if they are receiving help from the organization. |
|||
Mbarara University of Science and Technology Key team members: |
|||
We would appreciate the opportunity to work with OneLapTop Per Child Organization to help the children of Gunjur became technically capable and prepared for the future. |
|||
Tushabe Faith- Graduate student |
|||
Twinamatsiko Specioza- Undergraduate |
|||
Busingye Medius-Undergraduate |
|||
Kukunda Enid-Undergraduate |
|||
Twinamatsiko Medard- Undergraduate |
|||
Millennium Villages Project Team: |
|||
Education Coordinator: Lawrence Ssenkubuge |
|||
Education Facilitators: Peninah Tumusiime |
|||
Francis Tiberondwa |
|||
ICT Facilitator: Elly Nankunda |
|||
Earth Institute support team: Katie Murphy, Matt Berg |
|||
3. Objectives |
|||
• To empower girls and foster a culture of academic excellence among girls in Primary School, grades 5-7. |
|||
• To provide a forum for girls to openly exchange ideas, concerns, and information related to sexuality and gender. |
|||
• To improve girls’ performance levels in literacy and numeracy through the use of educational software and games. |
|||
4. Plan of Action and Timeline |
|||
This project will be lead by students in the faculty of development studies at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in close coordination with the Education Team at the Millennium Villages Project, with a field office in Mbarara, to plan for the training and deployment of 100 laptops to 10 primary schools (10 laptops per school). Initial training will be provided to 20 teachers and 50 girls, coming from 10 primary schools within the cluster. After training, 10 laptops will be deployed to each of the 10 primary schools to initiate the girls club activities. |
|||
The Millennium Villages Project will provide support for this initiative by helping to transport the laptops to the sites, assisting in the organization of the training activities, arranging the housing for the students during training, and providing an adequate energy system to support the laptops. |
|||
Primary activities include: |
|||
• May-June: exploratory visits to Ruhiira MVP (introduce initiative, meet teachers and parents, etc.) |
|||
• June 11-17: training in Kigali |
|||
• June 22-26: receive materials and prepare for trainings in coordination with MVP staff |
|||
• June 29- July 10: Training Session 1: Omwicwamba lead by MUST students (housing provided by MVP at Ruhiira office) |
|||
• July 13-24: Training Session 2: Kabuyanda lead by MUST students (housing provided by MVP) |
|||
• July 27- August 21: Implementation of “girls empowerment club” activities |
|||
• September: Monitoring and Evaluation (MVP staff) |
|||
• November-December: Sharing of evaluation results and planning for additional educational programs with the XO laptops (MVP staff) |
|||
Proposed schedule of trainings (each 2 weeks): |
|||
3 days general ICT basics, XO software |
|||
2 days- improving literacy with XO |
|||
2 days- improving math and numeracy with the XO |
|||
3 days of communication software and applications |
|||
Training recipients: |
|||
2 teachers from each school |
|||
5 girls from each school (grades 5-7) |
|||
5. Need |
|||
The Millennium Villages [http://www.millenniumvillages.org/aboutmv/index.htm] in the Ruhiira cluster are spread over several hundred square kilometers of southwestern Uganda and are home to approximately 20,000 children ages 6-12. While initiatives such as Universal Primary Education and the school feeding program have significantly increased primary school enrolment, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate school facilities, insufficient numbers of trained teachers and lack of teaching and learning resources, obstruct progress toward the establishment of a system of quality education. Although quality education is recognized as a key intervention to ensure sustainable development, and improve health and economic growth, a large proportion of students do not complete primary school. Girls, in particular, are at-risk of dropping out of school as they reach puberty and tend to leave school before grade 7. Girls that do remain in school, generally have lower performance in comparison with the boys. In a community where early marriages for girls is common practice and education for girls is viewed as less important after puberty, the formation of a academically and socially oriented support group for girls will be a critical intervention. |
|||
Currently, there are no initiatives that specifically target girls’ empowerment in the primary schools and they have no opportunity to come together as a group to tell their stories, ask questions about sexuality and gender, and support each other during the difficult transition period of puberty. The XO initiative will include the launch of a girls club to foster enthusiasm for learning, and to provide girls with the opportunity to openly discuss issues of gender and sexuality. Using the “chat” activity, the program will also provide an avenue for girls getting online support and mentors in order to boost their morale through partnerships with role models. |
|||
Revision as of 19:59, 27 March 2009
1. Project Title & Shipment Detail Name of Project: Ruhiira Millennium Villages Girls’ Empowerment Through ICT for Education Shipping Address: Mbarara University of Science and Technology Faculty of Development Studies P.O. Box 1410 Mbarara Number of Laptops You Request: 100 laptops
2. Team Participants Mbarara University of Science and Technology Key team members: Tushabe Faith- Graduate student Twinamatsiko Specioza- Undergraduate Busingye Medius-Undergraduate Kukunda Enid-Undergraduate Twinamatsiko Medard- Undergraduate Millennium Villages Project Team: Education Coordinator: Lawrence Ssenkubuge Education Facilitators: Peninah Tumusiime Francis Tiberondwa ICT Facilitator: Elly Nankunda Earth Institute support team: Katie Murphy, Matt Berg
3. Objectives • To empower girls and foster a culture of academic excellence among girls in Primary School, grades 5-7. • To provide a forum for girls to openly exchange ideas, concerns, and information related to sexuality and gender. • To improve girls’ performance levels in literacy and numeracy through the use of educational software and games.
4. Plan of Action and Timeline This project will be lead by students in the faculty of development studies at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in close coordination with the Education Team at the Millennium Villages Project, with a field office in Mbarara, to plan for the training and deployment of 100 laptops to 10 primary schools (10 laptops per school). Initial training will be provided to 20 teachers and 50 girls, coming from 10 primary schools within the cluster. After training, 10 laptops will be deployed to each of the 10 primary schools to initiate the girls club activities.
The Millennium Villages Project will provide support for this initiative by helping to transport the laptops to the sites, assisting in the organization of the training activities, arranging the housing for the students during training, and providing an adequate energy system to support the laptops.
Primary activities include: • May-June: exploratory visits to Ruhiira MVP (introduce initiative, meet teachers and parents, etc.) • June 11-17: training in Kigali • June 22-26: receive materials and prepare for trainings in coordination with MVP staff • June 29- July 10: Training Session 1: Omwicwamba lead by MUST students (housing provided by MVP at Ruhiira office) • July 13-24: Training Session 2: Kabuyanda lead by MUST students (housing provided by MVP) • July 27- August 21: Implementation of “girls empowerment club” activities • September: Monitoring and Evaluation (MVP staff) • November-December: Sharing of evaluation results and planning for additional educational programs with the XO laptops (MVP staff)
Proposed schedule of trainings (each 2 weeks): 3 days general ICT basics, XO software 2 days- improving literacy with XO 2 days- improving math and numeracy with the XO 3 days of communication software and applications
Training recipients: 2 teachers from each school 5 girls from each school (grades 5-7)
5. Need The Millennium Villages [1] in the Ruhiira cluster are spread over several hundred square kilometers of southwestern Uganda and are home to approximately 20,000 children ages 6-12. While initiatives such as Universal Primary Education and the school feeding program have significantly increased primary school enrolment, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate school facilities, insufficient numbers of trained teachers and lack of teaching and learning resources, obstruct progress toward the establishment of a system of quality education. Although quality education is recognized as a key intervention to ensure sustainable development, and improve health and economic growth, a large proportion of students do not complete primary school. Girls, in particular, are at-risk of dropping out of school as they reach puberty and tend to leave school before grade 7. Girls that do remain in school, generally have lower performance in comparison with the boys. In a community where early marriages for girls is common practice and education for girls is viewed as less important after puberty, the formation of a academically and socially oriented support group for girls will be a critical intervention.
Currently, there are no initiatives that specifically target girls’ empowerment in the primary schools and they have no opportunity to come together as a group to tell their stories, ask questions about sexuality and gender, and support each other during the difficult transition period of puberty. The XO initiative will include the launch of a girls club to foster enthusiasm for learning, and to provide girls with the opportunity to openly discuss issues of gender and sexuality. Using the “chat” activity, the program will also provide an avenue for girls getting online support and mentors in order to boost their morale through partnerships with role models.