OLPCorps IU South Africa

Ntswaki, a Student from Mmaweshi Primary School

Mission Statement

Indiana University's chapter of One Here... One There aims to give the youth of Haernertsburg, South Africa the opportunity to educate and empower themselves by providing them with XO laptops in hopes of closing the growing divide between between high income and low income countries.

One Here...One There

One Here...One There (OHOT) is a non-profit organization driven to foster growth in sub-Saharan Africa through primary education - the best long term solution for ending the world's worst cycle of poverty, hunger, and disease. It's all about one here helping one there. Indiana University's chapter of OHOT was founded in 2006 in an effort to give students on IU's campus an opportunity to positively contribute to a pressing issue facing the world today. To learn more about One Here... One There, please visit www.onehereonethere.org.

Members

OHOT Members

• Paul Commons

Founder and President of OHOT. International Studies major, Class of 2009

• Savanah Franklin

Vice President of OHOT. Economics and International Studies majors, Class of 2009

• Joseph Peoni

Public Finance Major, Class of 2010

• Carolyn Commons

International Studies Major, Class of 2012

• Bryan Stuart

Economic Consulting and Public Policy Analysis

• Joseph Shikany

Business Marketing and Operations Management Major, Class of 2009

• Gordon Lang

Nursing Major, Class of 2012

• Joseph Delehanty

Economic, History, and German Majors, Class of 2009

OHOT Members traveling to South Africa through OLPCorps

Savanah Franklin

Joseph Peoni

Carolyn Commons

Joseph Shikany

Gordon Lang

Joseph Delehanty

Contact Information

For more information relating to our South Africa project, please contact Joe Peoni at jpeoni@indiana.edu

Our Project

Our team is requesting 100 laptops from OLPCorps that will be distributed to fifth grade students in Haernertsburg, SA. We believe that saturating this area with technology and access to the internet will help to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, giving these students more of an opportunity to realize their dreams.

Deployment Schedule

Pre-Deployment (March-May):

• Educate team members about the emergent design pedagogy advocated by OLPC through assigned readings and group discussion
  
• Raise necessary funds to make project successful through grants, private donations, and fundraisers
• Arrange lodging and meals for team members for the duration of the project
  
• Arrange transportation (car rentals) for group members
  
• Arrange transportation of XO laptops from the Brightstar ship to Haernertsburg, SA
  
• Contact our partner organizations (Thusanang, Kliptown Youth Project, and Stanford Lake College) to discuss their schedules and to set dates, times, and locations for all learning workshops
  
• Arrange to provide lunch for the students who participate in learning workshops
  

Site Evaluation (May 15-June7):

• Evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of our 2008 XO deployment
  

Rwanda Summit (June 8-June18):

Project Implementation (June 18-August 30):

Week 1:

• Visit three local primary schools to distribute 100 laptops to fifth grade students
  
• Work with students during school hours in order to build a solid foundation of how to use a laptop
  
• Promote XO programs that will be held over break
  

Week 2-8:

• Organize and oversee out of school learning workshops (a schedule for these learning workshops is currently being discussed with our partnering organizations in Haernertsburg)
  

Week 9:

• Meet with leaders of our partnering organizations to finalize a sustainability plan in order to ensure a smooth transition when our team leaves
  

Post-Deployment (Ongoing):

• Maintain regular contact with leaders at our partnering organizations in order to provide continued support for future XO programs, technical assistance, and logistical issues.

Prior Experience: August 2008 Deployment

Overview

Indiana University’s chapter of One Here…One There (OHOT), raised funds and purchased 150 XO laptops through OLPC's Give Many Campaign. 100 of these laptops were donated to three participating schools (Mmaweshi Primary School, Katane Primary School, Driehoek Primary School) in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The twelve students who traveled to South Africa played an integral role in preparing the deployment. All students raised money through personal contacts and small donations. Each student was responsible for funding a certain amount of our total budget. We spent June and July programing the laptops, getting additional funding, and working on establishing personal contact with our South African contact, Thusanang Trust. We were in constant contact with Thusanang so that we would have an idea of what to expect once we got to South Afrca. They informed us about student numbers,student demographics, language proficiency, and logistical issues such as a lack of electricity and even a lack of space (one of the schools was not yet built during our deployment). We had a group gathering in July where we worked on lesson planning, brainstormed, and learned how to use the XO. We also had an African teacher from a local high school discuss African culture and education so we would have a better idea of how to interact in the school system.

The twelve OHOT students then traveled to Haenertsburg for three weeks to work with the schools and teach the students how to use the laptops. The teachers also began training on how to use the laptops as well as how to integrate them into daily class curriculum. Locally, Thusanang Trust, and more specifically Shelley Milstein, who took on the project, helped with the distribution and much of the set-up that went along with the project. Multiple people from the Kliptown project in Soweto, Johannesburg came to help with the deployment. This included Neo Masilo, the group’s IT specialist, as well as others who were extremely valuable with their knowledge of the workings of the laptops and the local languages.

Today, the project is still going strong with the continued help from Thusanag Trust. Fears that the laptops would not last in this type of environment were dismissed with the fact that only one laptop has broken to this date and not a single one has gone missing or been stolen. The laptops are maintained with generators at the two schools which do not have electricity. There are still problems with access to the Internet, but these problems are continuously being worked on. Kliptown is still involved in the success of this deployment by continuously helping with IT problems and the maintenance or the laptops. OHOT is still funding the continuation of the project.

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Involvement With OLPC

One Here...One There had no official affiliation with One Laptop Per Child during the 2008 deployment. OHOT raised all necessary funds for the project and bought the 150 laptops with these funds. We were in contact with OLPC about our independent deployment throughout it, as well as afterward. Now we would like to pursue a more official relationship with One Laptop Per Child through OLPCorps to continue to advocate and promote OLPC and OHOT's goals.

Location

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-25.035839" lon="29.718018" zoom="7" width="293" height="200" scale="yes"> -23.947665, 29.938774 </googlemap>

Fundraising

Members of IUOHOT raised over $64,000 through grants, personal donations, and fundraisers to support the 2008 XO project.

We have so far been awarded two grants from Indiana University totally $9,900 to support our 2009 initiative. We are applying for several more grants and are again seeking private donations and planning fundraisers to cover the remainder of our 2009 budget.

Partner Organizations

Thusanang Trust

One Here…One There partnered with a local organization, Thusanang Trust to help ensure the success of the project. Thusanang Trust was a pivotal part of the OHOT project. They acted as an intermediary between the schools and OHOT before the start of the project, providing OHOT with fundamental and critical information about the student geographic and providing a trust element as well as contact between the schools and OHOT before their arrival in South Africa. OHOT members also stayed in Thusanang's dormatories and used their facilities to charge the laptops and store them overnight. Thusanang's Shelley Milstein took special interest in OHOT's initiative and has ensured its continued success in OHOT's absence.

Kliptown Youth Program

Kliptown Youth Project also helped facilitate the success of the first deployment. They acted as a model for OHOT’s project as well as lent out multiple members of their team to help with IT needs, using the laptops, and the language barrier as well as dealing with unforeseen problems. Neo Masilo was the group's IT specialist. He helped set up the three servers and gave lessons to the teachers about using the Internet. Sipho Dladla helped in the classroom. He was able to translate when the students did not understand the OHOT members and also shared his knowledge of the local culture with OHOT.

Stanford Lake College

Stanford Lake College is a local secondary school in Haernertsburg. SLC assisted with laptop instruction during our 2008 deployment and oversees a weekly after school learning session in our absense for students in Haernertsburg who received an XO.

Power

For our 2008 deployment, our team purchased 2 generators to supply power for Mmaweshi & Driehoek because these primary schools were off-grid. Katane, our 3rd targeted school, had power before we arrived. Originally, we had intended to use solar power; however, with limited funding we were constrained to generators. Because we were working in a rural environment, we had to design a system where petrol could be sent to the schools. We allocated a portion of our funding to cover 6 months of petrol--additional funding was provided at the beginning of the year as we evaluated the progress. With our funding, Thusanang was able to transport a container of petrol each week so the laptops could be charged.

This summer, with an already existing structure in place, we aim to provide a more sustainable alternative. We will provide students with environmentally friendly, individual solar panels. Provided OLPC has enough 10W indiv. solar panels in storage, we intend to buy those. In doing so, this will allow children to spend more time learning after school. If this option isn't possible, we intend to buy solar panels from a Polakwane-based company Thusanang has ties with. This past fall, we received funding from the Indiana University Metz Foundation to fund related power costs for our XO projects.

Internet

We were able to establish internet at 2 out of the 3 schools in 2008. Internet connection has been donated free of charge by the Tzaneen-based internet company, Procom. The third school is problematic due to its unique geographic location where it is difficult for an internet signal to reach. In order to bounce the signal from the nearest tower (Steven's Lumber Mill), it would require us to construct a new tower on a nearby mountain. In a meeting with the Procom rep, costs were estimated at ~$6,000(USD) due to its remote location and low market demand. Currently, Thusanang is working alongside Procom to determine other alternatives to reach the school. Pending our fundraising efforts, it is our goal to provide internet at Mmaweshi Primay School so that all children will be able to use their XOs to their fullest potential.