OLPCorps Bucknell Nigeria
Synopsis
The Bucknell OLPC is committed to bringing 100 XO laptops to children ages 6-12 in the rural village of Umuariam, Nigeria. Communication is a key component of our deployment. We are not engaging in this project to simply teach children. Rather, we intend to empower these students such that the world may learn from them. By providing them with the tools to enhance the way they learn basic subjects, we believe the XO laptops will be invaluable. Moreover, through a school-pairing program, we plan to pair the school in Umuariam with a school in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. This will allow the children in these very different parts of the world to interact and engage with each other in a way that enhances cultural understanding.
They learn. We learn. The World Learns.
The Team
| Name | Degree |
|---|---|
| Kyle Olivo | B.S. in Computer Science '09 |
| Ahmed Kodouda | B.A. in International Relations '10 |
| William Harris | B.A. in Political Science and History '12 |
Team Biographies
Kyle Olivo
Kyle Olivo is a senior at Bucknell University. He will be receiving his B.S. in Computer Science in the spring of 2009. He has extensive knowledge of Linux based systems and is excited to put this knowledge to use on the XO platform. He has been involved in community service trips to New Mexico and Nicaragua. In New Mexico, he helped construct housing as part of Habitat for Humanity. In Nicaragua he spent time in the rural village of Nueva Vida, a village that suffered devastating infrastructural damage after Hurricane Mitch. The experience was eye-opening, and is one of the primary reasons he has chosen to participate in this program. He remembers how the community members of a small rural village in the mountains were hoping to raise enough money to buy a single computer for their children to use at school. The OLPCorps gives him the opportunity to fulfill this mission, albeit with another segment of the world's children.
Ahmed Kodouda
Ahmed Kodouda is a Junior at Bucknell University who is completing his B.A. in International Relations, with an area concentration on Africa. Originally from Sudan, he has traveled extensively throughout Africa and has lived in Sudan for over 10 years. He has worked with a Sudanese non-governmental organization called the Sudan Social Development Organization (www.sudosudan.org) that focuses its efforts in alleviating the miserable situation of internally displaced persons in and around the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. During the past two summers, he worked to distribute over ten thousand non-food item (NFI) packages that were vitally needed by the displaced population after the rainy season. He also has experience working in rural villages in Sudan, where he volunteered to participate in facilitating community workshops and programs.
William Harris
William Harris is a freshmen at Bucknell University, completing his B.A. in Political Science and History. William's experience includes working with young children around the Washington, DC area. He has worked as a camp councilor for the past four years, where he mentored children aged 8-12. He also has travelled to Brazil during the spring of 2009, where he helped build a community center in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Location
The Samflora Academy is located in Umuariam, Nigeria.
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="5.594118" lon="7.075195" zoom="7"> 5.557898, 7.328568, Umuariam, Nigeria </googlemap>
Proposal (Draft)
Learning Through Exploration, Communication, and Innovation.
We Learn Socially
We do not learn alone. We are social beings. As such, we have made communication a central part of our project through a proposed collaboration between a US primary school and the deployment school. The students will be provided with blogs and a student partner from the collaborating institution. In this way, the students can broaden their understanding of the world and different cultures by sharing personal their experiences.
Who We Are
The Bucknell OLPC team consists of three primary members:
- Kyle Olivo – B.S. in Computer Science '09
- Ahmed Kodouda – B.A. in International Relations '10
- William Harris - B.A. in Political Science and History '12
Where We Are Deploying
We have an established family contact at the Samflora Academy in Umuariam, Nigeria, a rural village in the state of Imo. We plan to deploy between June 18th and August 18th. Our contact, and the school's founder, is Barrister O. Samuel Anyanwu. Mr. Anyanwu has a vested interest in the Umuariam community. He has been involved in building community resources in Umuariam for approximately fifteen years, and is responsible for the construction of the school, an Internet cafe, as well as the village's telecommunications and utilities infrastructure.
The school itself consists of around 100 students between the ages of 6 and 12 years. The children speak English, so no language barrier exists. Each child in the given age range will receive a laptop and we will also host student led teach-ins to give the children an opportunity to teach their fellow schoolmates about technology.
The school presently has a stable power and Internet infrastructure that will be able to support the demands of the laptops. Mr. Anyanwu has stated his intention to cover the additional power and Internet costs associated with the use of the laptops. In the event that we should experience power or Internet related problems, Mr. Anyanwu has connections with local technicians who will assist in handling larger infrastructural issues.
The school will only be out of session during the month of July, and we can use this time to teach the instructors about the laptops to help facilitate their use in the classroom. We will also hold voluntary school sessions during this month; the community is excited and willing to facilitate these sessions in any way they can.
Educational Objectives
We realize that our goal is not to solely instruct the students through traditional Western educational means, but to show them how they can best use the technology we are providing to better their own lives. We believe that it is communication with other individuals that ultimately leads to increased knowledge. With this in mind we are in the process of creating a partnership between a Lewisburg, Pennsylvania school and Samflora Academy in Nigeria.
Blogs will be given to all of the students from both of the partnering schools. They will either be provided individually or as a group in the form of a classroom blog. With the blogs, the students will be able to hold a personal correspondence with a designated “blogmate” and the world. By providing both groups of students with blogs, we believe we will foster life-long connections.
The Superintendent of the Lewisburg Area School District is aware of our program and is excited about the possibility of linking the two schools. Bandwidth and technology permitting, we also intend to bring the schools face-to-face with video chat.
Technical and Financial Commitment
We want this project to be sustainable, and Mr. Anyanwu has assured us that infrastructural costs will not be an issue. We are relying on Mr. Anyanwu's school and his technical contacts to provide the bulk of the continued support for this project. We believe his long history of investment in the community shows that he and his organization are fully capable of sustaining the project after we leave.
The Bucknell OLPC organization will continue to support this project either as a separate entity or as a component of the Bucknell chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). This will ensure that Bucknell students will be ready to provide financial and technical assistance to the community should it be necessary.
Further information about the project can be found on our wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_Bucknell_Nigeria
Letters of Support
We have been in contact with Barrister O. Samuel Anyanwu, the founder of Samflora Academy. He has been a big proponent of the XO laptops and is very excited about our project. He has provided us with a letter of support, which you can find attached here:
Samflora Academy: Barrister O. Samuel Anyanwu - File:Anyanwu - Samflora Academy.pdf
Budget
| Airfare Items | Cost | Quantity | Item Total | Dates | Airline |
| Airfare (IAD – LOS) Roundtrip | 1700 | 2 | 3400 | June 6th – Aug 17th | Delta |
| Airfare (IAD – LOS) Roundtrip | 1700 | 1 | 1700 | June 18th – Aug 17th | Delta |
| Airfare (LOS - KGL) Roundtrip | 1000 | 2 | 2000 | June 6th – June 18th | Ethiopian Airlines |
| Airfare (LOS – QOW) Roundtrip | 150 | 3 | 450 | June 18th – Aug 17th | Aero Contractors |
| Subtotal | 7550 | ||||
| Other Items | Cost | Quantity | Item Total | ||
| Transportation | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Lodging | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Food | 650 | 3 | 1950 | ||
| Vaccinations | 250 | 3 | 750 | ||
| Visas | 150 | 3 | 450 | ||
| Misc (Mosquito nets/insect repellent/etc) | 200 | 3 | 600 | ||
| Insurance | 300 | 3 | 900 | ||
| Subtotal | 4650 | ||||
| Total | 12200 | ||||
Note: Lodging and local transportation will be provided by Samflora Academy.
We have been looking for additional funding in the form of personal grants to cover expenses beyond the amount of the stipend. At this time, we are waiting to hear back regarding approximately $4,000 in outside grants and funding. Additionally, we hope that we will be able to reduce these estimates (particularly the airfare) when we make our final purchases.
Download budget as PDF: File:Bucknell OLPC Budget.pdf
Activities
Blogging Partnership
The idea behind this activity is to allow the students of a US based school to communicate with the newly XO equipped Samflora Academy in Nigeria. Classroom or individually based blogs will be created so that the students will be able to post about their experiences, wishes, and ideas. In this way, both schools gain an understanding of another culture and its values.
This is a long running activity that will enable the students to share their culture with the world while simultaneously learning about another. Sample questions to ask the students:
- Who are you? - Present a brief autobiography describing significant events in your life with a self-portrait created by the XO's paint application.
- Where do you live? - Collect images using the XO camera, describe the landscape in the writing application, and share student created music using the recorder.
- What would you like to know? - Think about the ways your culture differs from the other. What aspects do you find interesting, exciting, or strange? Find creative ways to ask your questions beyond text.
We have established contact with the Superintendent of the Lewisburg Area School District and he is very supportive of this idea. He suggested extending this idea to include video chat between the partnering classrooms. Bandwidth permitting, we intend to pursue this idea.
Student Teach-ins
The 100 recipients of the XO laptops will inevitably be learning about technology at an amazing pace. Student lead teach-ins will give the students the opportunity to show their community what they have learned and how technology can better their lives. The decision to include student teach-ins was heavily influenced by the experiences of Indiana University's OLPC team (see 1:42 min into the video).
Planning
Airfare
Travel expenses became quite complicated for the two passengers travelling between Kigali and Owerri (near Umuariam). Our budget includes the following items:
- Traveller 1 (no orientation): 1 round trip ticket from Washington-Dulles to Lagos; 1 round trip ticket from Lagos to Owerri.
- Traveller 2 (orientation): 1 one-way ticket from Washington-Dulles to Kigali; 1 one-way ticket from Kigali to Lagos; 1 round trip ticket from Lagos to Owerri; 1 one-way ticket from Lagos to Washington-Dulles
- Traveller 3 (orientation): 1 one-way ticket from Washington-Dulles to Kigali; 1 one-way ticket from Kigali to Lagos; 1 round trip ticket from Lagos to Owerri; 1 one-way ticket from Lagos to Washington-Dulles
The prices listed in the budget are good estimates, but we hope to reduce the cost when we make the final ticket purchases.
Health
The following vaccinations are recommended by the CDC for all travelers to Nigeria:
| Vaccine | Cost* |
|---|---|
| Hepatitis A | $80 |
| Typhoid | $50 |
| Yellow Fever | $80 |
| Meningococcus | XX |
| Polio | $35 |
| Hepatitis B | XX |
| MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) | XX |
| Tetanus | XX |
| Rabies | $600 (For 3 Shots) |
* Costs are specific to vaccinations administered at Bucknell University.
XX: Vaccinations required for Bucknell admission -- cost irrelevant.
Malaria
The Malaria in Nigeria is resistant to Chloroquine, the standard anti-malaria drug. The alternatives (Malarone, Doxycycline, and Mefloquine) vary highly in cost and form of side effects. We will likely use Doxycycline due to its low cost and mild side effects. If anyone has suggestions, please comment.
Infrastructure
Samflora Academy possesses a stable power and Internet infrastructure presently. In addition, many households have been equipped with electrical power. The school itself also has a backup generator. What this community possesses in electrical infrastructure, it lacks in computational power. The XO laptops will server as an invaluable asset in the education of this communities youth.
Technical Support
Technical support for Internet infrastructure issues and general laptop maintenance will be provided by technicians employed by Mr. Anyanwu. We will take the time to train these local technicians on the laptops before we the end of our time there. Additionally, we believe that some students will want to learn how to repair their own laptops, and we will certainly teach them basic repair and maintenance if they so desire. This ensures that after we leave, the laptops and supporting infrastructure will serviceable by local individuals.
Our Commitment
While Mr. Anyanwu's organization is fully capable of supporting the project once we leave, we have established a plan that will ensure that the connection between Bucknell University and the Samflora academy is sustained.
Sister School Program
The Bucknell African Student's Association (BASA) has agreed to work to maintain the relationship between Samflora Academy and the local school here in Lewisburg. BASA has agreed to absorb this project under their initiatives by undertaking monthly visits to the elementary school near Bucknell University. Members of BASA will visit the school and conduct sessions where the children in both schools will hold workshops. These workshops will be formulated so they engage both schools simultaneously.
Financial Support
Additionally, in case of the need for financial support, BASA will work to raise funds that would be sent to the Samflora Academy. BASA has been very successful in the past in raising funds for their other initiatives. They have, on an annual basis, raised over $2,000 for the African Medical and Research Foundation during their World Aids Day fundraiser.
Contact
We are very interested in hearing your thoughts! You are an integral part of making this proposal stronger! Please let us know of any recommendations you may have. We are particularly interested in hearing from those of you who have valuable firsthand experiences to share from previous OLPC deployments.
Please send all correspondence to: kyleolivo@gmail.com