OLPCorps CarnegieMellonUniversity Tanzania

The purpose of this project is to use 100 laptops to implement basic technology, social media and social change curriculum at Shepherds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania from June 8th - August 15th, 2009. Two graduate students from Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College School of Public Policy and Management along with a local Tanzanian undergraduate student from the Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA) will be project managers. The student team has a wide breadth of educational and work experience directly related to this project. The team includes former Peace Corps volunteer teacher Ashley Kent, public policy student Christie Callenback, and local collaborator William Kampton.

Work with Children
The team will develop and implement curriculum from June 17th to July 31st using technology and social media to allow students to reach their community and the world. The final two weeks of the project will be used for knowledge transfer to school teachers and staff, since most students are not on campus during August. The team will work hands on with students throughout the course of the summer, and thereafter William Kampton will continue ongoing work with the school.

• 

  School founder "Mama Lucy" Kampton with students

Local Partner
Shepherds Junior School is a program of Shepherds Foundation, a Tanzanian NGO led by "Mama Lucy" Kampton, a local woman who used to sell chickens and used her income as the school's original seed capital. The school is staffed entirely by local teachers. In addition, William Kampton has worked with the school in various capacities since its founding. In 2007, US nonprofit Epic Change began innovatively investing in the school's expansion, and in 2008 the school was certified by the Minister of Education to participate in national exams for the first time. In that year, the school's Class IV students (now Class V) placed #1 out of 117 schools in the Arusha district. Both Epic Change and Shepherds Foundation have infrastructure in place to support this program over the long term, and their letter of support is available here.

Direct Impact
This program seeks to create a curriculum that will enable students to raise awareness about social issues that impact their lives using social media. Social change is a key component of the curriculum at Shepherds Junior School, which now serves over 300 children. Nearly 200 of these children are in the 6-12 age range. Currently, the students use song, dance and theatre to share information with their community about HIV, women’s rights and child abuse to name a few. Through social media tools, we will empower students to have a larger impact in their community.

Project Financial Needs
RT Travel for 2 US - Kigali - Arusha: $4800
RT Travel for 1 Arusha - Kigali: $500
2-Bedroom Apartment Rental in Arusha for 2 months: $2000
Food: $1000
Supplies and Technical Support: $1000
Transportation: $200
Immunizations & Passport: $250
Visa Fees: $200

Total: $9,950 USD

Ongoing Financial Support
In alignment with the values of Epic Change, this student team is committed to supporting the self-sufficiency of Shepherds Junior School. To do so, instead of providing ongoing "donations," Epic Change empowers the students and staff to share their stories through products whose sales benefit the school. Following this project, we will be able to help the students become young entrepreneurs who market products globally using technology and social media tools. In addition, our student team will work with Carnegie Mellon to direct future student talent, in the form of interns and consulting teams, to OLPC, Epic Change, and Shepherds Junior.

Communication
All team members are fluent in English, which is the primary language of the school. In addition, as one of the team members is from the local community, he will serve as a translator as necessary.

Additional Notes
Two teams from Carnegie Mellon are submitting separate applications in partnership with Shepherds Junior School and Epic Change. Because of OLPC's stated value of "child ownership" of technology, two team awards would give us the opportunity to provide computers to all of the children in the targeted age range at Shepherds Junior School. Both teams have stated separate objectives. Our team will focus on building a social media & social change curriculum, while the other will focus on building an online storytelling curriculum. Both teams will collaborate to teach basic technology to students, and to perform knowledge transfer to school teachers and staff. William Kampton will participate as an active member on both teams if both are selected for participation.