OLPCorps Kibwezi Educational Centre, VA Tech, James Madison U., Radford U., Bucknell U.,and Northern VA Community College, Kenya

Kibwezi is a small rural town located in the arid region of Kenya, about half-way between the capital of Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombassa. Many of the students come from the surrounding farms. Their families survive on subsistence agriculture and many do not have electricity nor running water in their homes. The access to laptops computers stirs emotions of pure joy inside of the children. Last year many took the computers home and took videos of their families with the record program. We were lucky enough to listen to wonderful songs that they recorded in their churches as well.

A child at the Imani Primary School in Kibwezi, Kenya learns with OLPC.


Our team is composed of 22 Americans from Burke Presbyterian Church partnered with the Imani Primary School at the Kibwezi Educational Centre, in Kibwezi Kenya. Our group has already made personal commitments to pay for ourselves to return to Kenya in July 2009. We are scheduled to arrive on July 3rd and leave July 27th. During that time, we break into small teams and learn from our Kenyan teachers how they faired over the past year with the OLPCs. We are taking fresh faces theis year, five members of the team are enrolled in university level classes at the following schools: VA Tech, James Madison University, Radford University, Bucknell University, and Northern Virginia Community College. The other 17 team members come from all walks of life, including a elementary teacher and a math teacher from Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology.
This will be our second deployment of OLPC computers to the primary school. Last year we purchased six OLPCs through the Give-One-Get-One (G1G1) program. This year we have already purchased four OLPC computers, two new OLPCs through G1G1 and two used OLPCs through Ebay; in addition we have adapted "Sugar on a Stick" to train team members who do not have the ororiginal hardware. Our focus this year is developing a curriculum which fits into Kenya's focus on standardized testing. We have two former teachers training with the Laptops via a tutoring program located in Burke Presbyterian Church. This practical experience paired with guidance via email communication with the director of the Imani Primary school will prepare us for our second deployment.
About the Partner School




The campus of the Kibwezi Educational Centre contains a polytechnic offing two-year vocational programs in carpentry, masonry, welding, and tailoring. There is also a secretarial department which requires students to have graduated from secondary school. Finally, a primary school and preschool exist for grades one though eight. There are approximately 400 hundred students in the primary school. These students range in age from 6 to 12 years old. If awarded 100 OLPC, we can devided the computers either into certain grade levels or a computer lab. We will consult with Grace Chege, the Imani Primary School Director. Based on past experience she takes our advice seriously and advices her staff to work with us as equals.


Diane Reimers with kindergarten age students.

Three Kenyan teachers from the Imani primary school in Kibwezi, Kenya teach OLPC to their students

Several strengths of the OLPC deployment to the Kibwezi educational Centre include:

1) A twenty-one year history between Burke Presbyterian Church and the Local Presbyterian Church of East Africa, to include the Educational Centre and the Inmani Primary school, which we help fund. In 2008, a group of 8 adults from Burke traveled to Kibwezi to plan for larger group of 22 to visit in July 2009.

2) As for the budget, we are self sufficient for the trip to Kenya, but we will need funding from OLPC to cover travel expenses for our students to travel to Rwanda for the official training in June. Every group member/work camp participant from Burke have all paid for our own air plane tickets to Kenya in July. We will be staying in tents for one month to help keep of costs down and to avoid mosquitoes. OLPC will "bonusing" off of costs already covered by Burke Presbyterian Church, to included thousands in travel expenses, OLPC shipping, and the salaries of the local Kenyan teachers. And if awarded 100 OLPC laptops by OLPC Africa Corps, church members can carry 5 OLPCs each, thus providing a guarantee that the computers arrive safely at their intended destination.

Cell tower in Kibwezi, used for access to internet service.

3) A demonstrated commitment to learning at the local level in the United States. Both by attending meetings of the DC Area OLPC Users Club (the largest such club in the world) and by tutoring American students year-round with OLPC computers (started in November 2008). It is planned that Greg Gates, will teach Kenyan curriculum using OLPCs based on the OLPCorps Learning Guide.

Eric Fisher practicing on an OLPC computer. Eric is a high school senior going to Kenya in July 2009.

Photographs from 2008 Deployment:


In this photo is Diane Reimers, a kindergarten teacher and member of Burke Presbyterian Church, along with two teachers from the Imani Primary School.

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Bob Braxton teaching with an OLPC to a student at the Imani Primary School.


Eva Thorp, a professor at George Mason University teaching with an OLPC.


Points of Contact(POCs) in the United States:
David Norman(proposal writer), analyst, US Department of Defense, (703) 489-0334, parkranger1998-alaska at yahoo.com.
More POCs in omitted Information Section

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