OLPCorps Africa

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Welcome to OLPCorps Africa, a new student-based, grassroots OLPC initiative.
Email us for any questions about the program: OLPCorps@laptop.org
Can't find what you're looking for below? Try our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Notice there's room for discussing things in the Talk Page
We've posted a notice asking for comments. Please help translate it and pass it on. If you want to get involved in a support role, please see our Support Committee page.

About OLPCorps Africa

100 XOs, Hardware, $10K stipend, 10-day training in Kigali, Rwanda, and an entire summer in an African country of your choice. Sound too good to be true? Well, it's not. OLPC has a revolutionary vision: an XO for every child. Crazy, right? Not crazy enough, since it's becoming a reality. Country after country, children with XOs are learning more, finding new avenues of expression, and connecting to a global network of like-minded children. But we can't achieve this dream alone, which is why we need your help in turning this idea into a global movement. Through OLPCorps Africa, we'll provide the tools and resources to get you started if you can provide the time, energy, and dedication to change the world. This is a student movement, a learning movement, an education movement...The OLPC Movement.


Eligibility & Requirements

  • Undergraduate or graduate students from all fields of study and nationalities are eligible to apply. Students entering university in fall '09 or graduating in spring '09 are also eligible to participate.
  • English fluency is required.
  • Minimum number of people in a team is 2.
  • At least 2 team members must be present in Kigali, Rwanda June 8th-17th for training with the OLPC Learning Team. Teams will then depart for their specific destination.
  • Deployments must occur within one of the African countries. Preference will be given to deployments in rural areas.
  • Minimum of 9-10 weeks commitment (the duration of your summer break).
  • Each team member must have their immunizations.
  • Each team member must hold a valid passport.
  • Each team member is responsible for acquiring a visa, if needed.
  • 1 member of each team will participate in a workshop at MIT/OLPC in Cambridge this October 10-12 (all expenses covered by OLPC).


How to Write a Project Proposal

Thinking about starting your proposal? Not sure where to start? This section should answer some of your questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions & collaborate - we're better as a team. Keep in mind, up to 100 teams are receiving 100 XOs each.

In the end, all teams will be working together for 10 days in Kigali before deploying. Our goal is to form a network of African deployments which support learning for years to come. Before your team applies, consider the following suggestions we've outlined below.

Proposal deadline is by March 27th. Send yours to <OLPCorps@laptop.org> with the following title: "OLPCorps_YourUniversity_CountryinAfrica_LastName". Proposals will not be considered if they exceed the 750 word limit (hyperlinks are ok), are submitted in a language other than English, do not mention technical and NGO support, or do not focus on children & learning.

Accepted Proposals will be announced April 10th.

Below are a few helpful guidelines from the OLPCorps Team which must be covered in designing your proposal.

Proposal formatting:

  • Proposals must be in English.
  • Length of Proposal must not exceed 750 words.
  • Hyper-linked text is allowed throughout the proposal.

Proposal contents:

  • Answer the basics: who, what, when, where. Most importantly, KEEP IT CONCISE AND DIRECTLY TO THE POINT.
  • How will you work with children? Are the children in school from June-August? Are they on break? Address how you will deal with children and learning with their schedule.
  • Who is the local partner? How will you follow-up? Partner with groups capable of maintaining the deployment after you leave. Is there an academic institution, NGO, community organization, etc. willing to oversee the project after August? Do you have family ties in the community? What's going to happen when you leave?
    • Include a letter of support from the local partner (this doesn't count towards your 750 word limit). Make sure you show that together you're capable of handling the receipt of a 230 kg package of laptops and equipment. Where will you store the equipment during the deployment?
  • How will this impact 6-12 yr old children? All proposals must be about kids 6-12 years old and their learning. A proposal gets stronger as soon as the group can show that children are the agents of change, not just the objects of teaching.
    • Incorporate the File:Learning Manual V2.pdf into your project proposal.
    • Stick to OLPC's Core Principles: child ownership, low ages, saturation, connection, and free and open source.
  • Describe your project's financial needs. As an attachment (that doesn't count towards the 750 word limit), provide a brief budget for the project. Include travel costs (to Kigali and your deployment community), housing for 9 weeks (can your local partner help here?), and other project-related expenses. Remember that OLPC will only grant up to $10,000 and that you do not need to include XOs, accessories, or Kigali accomodations in your budget. If you have a creative project-based idea that needs funding, let us know.
    • Be realistic with your budget. It will determine how much money you'll receive.
    • But also be economical where possible. If we think a team's budget is wasteful or unrealistic, we will consider that in evaluating the proposal.
  • How will you provide financial support after you leave? OLPC is dedicating significant time and resources to create learning environments throughout Africa! How can you show that your team can provide financial support after you leave?
    • Research your university's grant programs, student associations, alumni networks, and other avenues of funding to sustain your deployment.
  • Communication - do you share the language of the school or community where you will be working? If not, how will this be overcome?


Note: Upon acceptance, you will be asked to provide proof as a student. This will be verified by the dean of your department, for instance.


Publishing Project Proposals

As you develop your team's project proposal, you should post it to the wiki. This is the only way the OLPCorps team and the OLPC community can provide feedback for your proposal before the submission deadline. Please note: you still must e-mail your proposal as described above by March 27th. Below are the steps to publish your Project Proposal wiki page:

  • Step 1: Create your own project proposal wiki page
  • Step 2: Enter your information in the newly created wiki page. Click on the "Edit" tab of different wiki pages (especially OLPCorps examples and this page) to see how to write and format the wiki.
  • Step 3: Connect your Project Proposal to the main OLPCorps wiki page (this page). In your short summary below, type the following to link your Project Proposal to this site: OLPCorps_UniversityName_Deployment Country, which should be the same format as your Project Proposal URL.

If you are not comfortable using the wiki for publishing a draft of your proposal for feedback, drafts may be emailed to olpcorpsdrafts@gmail.com, and we will post it to the wiki for you. Note that this is not the address to send your final proposal submission.

OLPCorps Africa Applicants

Below is a regularly updated list of teams across the globe applying to OLPCorps Africa. Missing a key component to your proposal's design? Need a technical lead? Need a pedagogical lead? Working in an off-grid environment? Here's your chance to partner up with like-minded students to change the world. Power in numbers, right?

University of Colorado, Namibia

In the 1990s, community-run nature Conservancies formed in Namibia’s wildlife-rich rural areas to thwart poachers, increase animal populations and generate funds from tourism for rural development projects. Elephant Energy (www.elephantenergy.org) was formed by University of Colorado students, faculty and alumni to assist the Conservancies and their support organizations, the World Wildlife Fund and IRDNC, to promote rural development and nature conservation though the dissemination of appropriate, low-cost renewable energy technologies in Conservancy areas. To that end, Elephant Energy distributed 50 BoGo solar-powered flashlights (www.bogolight.com) in August 2008 to the Caprivi Region’s nine Conservancies and plans to distribute over 1000 more in the fall of 2009. Like the lights, the 100 XO laptops will be used as seed technology to encourage Conservancies to invest money earned from tourism in life-changing products. Elephants, which only a decade ago were feared and poached, will help to light the homes and educate the youth of Namibia.

Please visit our OLPC wiki page for more information!

MIT, Kenya

We are a team of three students from MIT looking to expand the knowledge of computers and technology to children in both Mombasa and Nairobi. We will be working with two schools by means of an after school camp in which they can learn the basics of the XO laptops and how to implement and spread the technology. Please see our wiki for more information and updates.

Please visit our OLPC wiki page for more information!


Pepperdine University, South Africa

We are a group of students from Pepperdine University and will be implementing 100 XO laptops in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We will be working with the Vanderkemp Primary School there and with the help of our local support, Adventures in Missions, we will be able to successfully implement, sustain, and maintain an invaluable program to the future development of the students. See our wiki for more information and to view the proposal we are drafting! OLPCorps_PepperdineUniversity_SouthAfrica

Harvard, Kenya

We are team of 7 Kenyan undergraduates from Harvard University, MIT, and BU. We plan to introduce the XO to the children, and organize our work with them into three main stages.

•Introduction to the XO

•Working with the XO - The Basics

•Further Integration of the XO into the Curriculum.

We plan to deploy the 100 laptops in a school in the Western region.

Please visit our OLPC wiki page to view our proposal.


St. Paul's Primary School, Nigeria - Carnegie Mellon, RIT, Africa Nazarene

We will deploy at St. Paul's Primary School in Nigeria, which has 420 students. Many of the students are orphans or from poor families. The proprietor of the school is related to one of our group members. We will work closely with the proprietor and teachers to integrate the XO laptop into the daily lessons in Math, Social Studies, English, and Science. In addition, we will start a program to teach the children blogging and video blogging. The program will 1) raise awareness of African issues around the world and 2) teach the children to write and communicate effectively. We will create the blogs / video blogs with a content management system such as Drupal and host them on a dedicated virtual server such as Amazon EC2. We will cross post the content to established sites such as YouTube. Proposal.

Group Members:

  • Okon Sunday David is a Theology student at Africa Nazarene University. He has worked at St. Paul's before and is related to the proprietor. St. Paul's is located in his home village.
  • Becca Nelson is a student at RIT and has extensive experience working with non-profits in Africa. She has specifically worked at computer training centers in Kenya.
  • Bryant Lee holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He has created and maintained previous Web 2.0 sites and has managed computer servers. He has published numerous scientific papers. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bryantl


MACALESTER COLLEGE

I am looking for someone/people to partner with. I plan to work with a local school in a semi-rural town in Northern Zimbabwe. It's a school I went to, so I know the people and community. I am also liaising with them for logistical purposes. I am looking for someone with XO-specific technical know-how, keen to explore that part of the world and passionative about the cause. Interested? E-mail me: dmaponde [@] macalester.edu


Indiana University (IU)

Under the auspices of One Here...One There, a non-for-profit org. driven to mitigate educational disparities in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indiana University OLPC chapter is comprised of mostly liberal-arts students with an interest in alternative learning environments and international development. With technical support through the Kliptown Youth Project (KYP), the IU OLPC chapter distributed 115 XOs (15 thanks to Larry Weber) to 3 separate rural primary schools in Limpopo, South Africa from Aug-Sept '08, in addition to establishing power and internet. The team continues to support South African OLPC deployments in various ways, including its first XO Camp in Johannesburg, networking and support for future deployments, and the like. IU OLPC is applying to the OLPCorps Africa program with the hope of saturating the already participating schools in South Africa. Contact Joe Peoni (jpeoni@indiana.edu) for any questions relating to our program. IU OHOT is looking for a team member to assist in translation, specifically to/from Sepedi.

Global Minimum (GMin), Harvard, Princeton, Indiana University, etc

GMin- www.gmin.org , is a dynamic international organization based on the principle that we can use minimal resources to reduce some of the world's larger problems to a minimum through well-researched and executed projects. Of course, one can think of it as the "least we can do". We work predominantly in Sierra Leone at the moment- where we have successfully carried out Malaria Eradication projects and recently, distributed about 30 XOs to a small community in Sahn Malen, Sierra Leone. GMin will apply to the OLPCorps Africa program because to us, this is one of the best ways to improve education on a grass root level. For more information, contact info@gmin.org

Cornell OLPC (Mauritania)

A team led by socially conscious Information Science students from Cornell is planning a trip to deploy laptops in Mauritania. One team member’s brother is currently in the Peace Corps in the town of Tidjikja teaching at a primary school. We are also partnering with the local Girls Mentoring Center to distribute and administer the laptops. We have both technical expertise and a direct contact currently on the ground in our deployment area, who will remain for another year after the laptops are given out. This will enable a smooth transition for the laptop program and make sure that the program continues to succeed after the summer project is finished. We will continue to edit our proposal as more information becomes available. If anyone wants to collaborate, has questions or is just generally interested feel free to contact us at eal95@cornell.edu.

UMB OLPC

OLPC University of Massachusetts Boston: UNCHOSEN AFRICAN COUNTRY

Members: Olesia Plokhii, John Keniley

PROPOSAL/MISSION/MANIFESTO: Our goal is to turn children into agents of change by empowering them with new media tools—a computer—to be citizen journalists. Using word tools and multimedia apps, we hope to get FLIP—a small, handheld camera the size of a phone—to sponsor our mission and donate 100 flips to our community so we can incorporate word, audio, and video to create a story of each child’s life that will ultimately be broadcast to other XO laptop-participating countries and the USA, promoting a global network of educated youth. An integral part of the child’s project—uploaded on a sharing site that is blog-enabled—will be to document the effect of AIDS on children and their families, with a focus on creating AIDS awareness within the community. PLEASE ADD SUGGESTIONS HERE. email: olesia_p@hotmail.com, jkeniley@hotmail.com

Mount Holyoke Tanzania

I am currently working on a proposal for this targeting Tanzania. Awaiting feedback of an NGO confirmation. Will be putting up regular updates!!

Southern Africa

This group is led by a group of former United World College students that are in the process of partnering with primary schools in rural Southern Africa. We are all from different countries in Southern Africa and have planned deployments in South Africa and Swaziland. Being natives of the region gives us valuable knowledge of the specific problems faced by young learners in this region as well as a vast network of NGO's. The model we intend on using is an art-based empowerment program that not only gifts young children the opportunity to learn but to impart their knowledge to their peers as they do so. You are welcome to contact us at tsepang@googlegroups.com for more information as well as support.

Jamii OLPC, Tanzania

“Jamii” means community in Kiswahili, and is the foundational principle of Jamii OLPC’s OLPCorps Africa proposal:

Real, sustainable development comes from the people who make cities, towns and villages into communities.

A partnership between Matemwe School in Zanzibar, Tanzania and numerous international team members, Jamii OLPC is a small but experienced multi-national, multi-university team. Jamii OLPC, Matemwe School and the MSCC are applying to OLPCorps to begin an XO Library in the Matemwe School Computer Centre.

Please visit our OLPC wiki page for more information.

Stanford University

We are five Stanford Students interested in working with a primary school in Africa this summer to implement a health education program using the XO laptops. As a group we have extensive experience in international health and working with nonprofits.

We are in contact with several NGOs and primary schools in Tanzania and Uganda. We will update this information soon as we finalize the arrangements.

You can contact us at marlene@faceaids.org .

University of Pennsylvania OLPC

Developing Brighter Futures

We are a team of students from the University of Pennsylvania interested in working in a rural region of southwest Cameroon to improve education. We know that a better education for youth leads to a better and stronger community. With the OLPCorps we will have the opportunity to partner with the United Action for Children, a NGO that works with rural English speaking communities between Mamfe and Buea in Cameroon. The main school of the UAC is the Jamadianle School in Buea which serves a growing population of 615 elementary school students. Collaborating with the UAC we have developed a series of projects related to computer literacy and education that will be implemented this summer to enhance their mission and continue their goals of providing a strong education and community center for this rural region.

[Posted by another UPenn team] Hey guys, we should get in touch. We're another team of 4 from UPenn, looking at some different organizations and countries, but if we're all on campus we should think about collaborating in some way. Email me: ranawei [at] gmail

Utah State University OLPC

The XO Go core team brings both students and professionals from Utah State University and the UNGANA Foundation together during June 2009 for a collaboration founded on local expertise, holistic creativity, and vocational empowerment. Fundamentally, the XO Go Program empowers an already impressive youth, building global support networks and fostering creativity in a real-world setting. The XO Go core team will implement and deploy XO Laptops to the orphans of Gisenyi, Rwanda, focusing opportunities for English education, money-management, and community support.

Interested? Check out our working project proposal: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_USU_Rwanda [1]

Please contact ashley@unganafoundation.org for questions, comments, and ofcourse, welcomed collaboration.

Royal Institute of of Technology (KTH), Sweden

School: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden
Team Name: OLPCorps_KTH_ETHIOPIA
Team Memembers: Kidis Getachew, Bemnet Tesfaye, and Luelseged Asrade
Deployment Location: Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Proposal
We are a team of three international master’s students in KTH, Sweden. We are applying for the OLPCorp Africa project in order to deploy XOs in a small primary school called Yekatit 23 found in the town of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Since all the team members are originally from Ethiopia, we will have no obstacle related to language barriers and luck of local knowledge. Our understanding of various problems in education present in developing countries is not a mere theory, rather it is more of a personal experience that we all have undergone through and it’s something that we would like to change. Our local knowledge and experience couples well with our technical background in IT as noted in the [about us section].

So far we had three meetings, and we have answered questions related to identifying deployment location and appropriate local partners and determining how we should localize existing contents and create new services. Currently we are working on other practical issues including budgeting and establishing a formal agreement with our local partners. Specifically, we are working towards convincing the Ethiopian Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP), which deployed around 5000 XOs in the year 2007(see [OLPC_Ethiopia]), to be our local partner. So far the main challenge has been getting the initial contacts in ECBP. The next obvious thing to do will be to demonstrate how our small sized deployment could be part of previous deployments. In order to facilitate this, we are receiving appreciable support from our colleagues at Bahir Dar University and from Yekatit 23 primary school.

If you need more info about the team go to http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_KTH_ETHIOPIA
To contact us send an email to merha<at>kth.se. We welcome all questions comments and suggestions with great value.

Bucknell OLPC

Learning Through Exploration, Communication, and Innovation.

Participating School: Bucknell University
Deployment Location: Umuariam, Nigeria

The Bucknell OLPC team is committed to bringing 100 XO laptops to a rural primary school in Umuariam, Nigeria. We have an established contact (family based) from the school who will be able to support the project once we leave.

  • Exploration

We are dedicated to the constructionist pedagogical techniques advocated by the OLPC Association. We believe that learning through exploration is one of the most effective educational techniques we could employ.

  • Communication

We do not learn alone. We are social beings. As such, we felt it was important to include a strong communication component into our proposal. We have accomplished this 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 share and learn from one another in a highly expressive and personal way.

  • Innovation

The innovation is provided by the OLPC XO laptops, and we fully intend to utilize these machines to their maximum ability.

We welcome all questions or comments. Please direct all correspondence to: kyleolivo@gmail.com
Project Link: [Bucknell OLPC]

University of Delaware OLPC

A rough draft of our proposal is located here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_UD_Tanzania Please contact Jeff - jjm4114@yahoo.com - if you have any feedback whatsoever. Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated!

We are a group of three Masters students at the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware http://suapp.udel.edu/, proposing the deployment of 100 XO laptops to St. Pius Academy English Primary School in Tarakea, Tanzania. One of our team members is an international student from Tanzania with an extensive local network including family and colleagues in Tarakea. A second team member has both visited and developed relationships with community members in Tarakea through initial development of a volunteer tourism program to support local schools. We have confirmed a classroom partnership with an identified school in Durham, North Carolina, to promote cross-cultural learning through virtual sharing of local information, student-led identification of community needs and collaborative problem solving. We are in the process of pricing internet-delivery to Tarakea, soliciting in-kind donations, fundraising, and creating/identifying an existing collaborative fundraising website that aggregates individual charitable donations similar to Kiva.org http://kiva.org/, GlobalGiving http://www.globalgiving.com/, DonorsChoose http://www.donorschoose.org/homepage/main.html?zone=0, and Global Literacy Foundation http://globalliteracy.net/ to facilitate the provision of funding to meet student-identified community needs and to provide partial funding for the project.

California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) OLPC

Updates: OLPCorps CSUSB Nigeria

XO KV (Kiddies vision) 6-12 is the proposed project program name for the OLPCorps Africa grassroots initiative in Nigeria that will give kids limitless access to knowledge as well as a new age of development in their educational system and community. The main goal of the program is providing training for children between the ages of six to twelve years old, especially kids from extremely low-income areas. XO KV6-12 program will focus on providing young kids access to digital technologies and information by introducing them to powerful ways to use them through 100 XO laptops. This opportunity will help them to be in a better position to make a future difference in their communities and the world. It is expected that by providing such information to young minds, it will have direct and positive effect on their academic and community development. CSUSB OLPCorps Team is uniquely qualified for the OLPCorps project because of our team’s ties to the proposed deployment country. The OLPCorps CSUSB Nigeria Team is comprised of two Nigeria citizens that are graduate students in the Computer Science and Engineering Department of California State University San Bernardino. Our extensive memberships in IEEE (Founding members of IEEE CSUSB Chapter)-http://groups.google.com/group/csusb-ieee-student-chapter, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)-http://www.acm.org/, GFA (Greetings from America)-http://www.greetingsfromamerica.org/, EAC (Education Advising Center) Abuja US embassy-http://nigeria.usembassy.gov/prog_08092007a.html, Cyber Defense CSUSB Team-http://insecuresystem.org/pages/csusb-network.php, CSE Club-http://cse.csusb.edu/cse.CLUB, and NYSC Charity group-http://www.nysc.gov.ng/ will be of great technical as well as professional value in the OLPCorps Africa.

For more information about our team feel free contact us @ smugs2che@gmail.com or blog @ myspace.com/keleonye

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OLPCorps Team

We are working on getting our proposal together. Our NGO has yet TBD, but several promising candidates have been found. We will post more details as they become available.

NOTICE: We are looking to set up an impromptu meeting with other teams in the Boston area in the interest of collaboration and discussion. If you are interested in attending the meeting or wish to provide input to this meeting, and would like more details, please contact oderby at mit.edu. We are still trying to find other teams in the area, so if you are out there and reading this, please let us know that you exist!


Umoja OLPCorps Team (UC Berkeley) -- Zambia

Umoja is Swahili for "Unity"

The Umoja OLPCorps team has partnered with FORGE to deploy XO laptops in Zambia. We want to make a difference in every child we encounter. We will engage the local community in a sustainable manner and share our knowledge at every through this exchange process; Umoja is a partnership between students from the University of California Berkeley and Cavendish University of Zambia. In unity of spirit we will cooperatively achieve One Laptop Per Child's mission.

  • International Team

    International Team

  • Need-team-pic.jpg

    Berkeley Team


As the International Team works to find resources and partners for the deployment, our counterparts in Zambia will begin working with local primary schools in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Over this summer, the two collaborating teams will meet in Umoja, for the actual mentorship and a knowledge-transfer of technology, resources, and local community practices. One potential school is "Arthur Winner Basic School" located in South Chilenje, Lusaka.
Umoja is a true partnership among grassroot educators, passionate students and Umoja team, making an impact in the educational world. OLPCorps provides the opportune resources and mission to realize Umoja

Proposal: Cal OLPC
Contact: Ask away!

Dalarna University & Royal Institute of Technology_Ethiopia


Our team which contents two members(Profile of Team Members) is preparing OLPC project proposal in the southern part of Ethiopia The proposal is on progress and it will be uploaded as soon as possible for comment. if you want to see the contents of the proposal and the primenary draft(Contents of the Proposal)

Michigan State University XO Deployment Initiative

We are working on a proposal to deploy XO laptops to Zonkizizwe Primary School, south of Johannesburg in South Africa. The Michigan State University African Studies Center has established relationships within the Zonkizizwe community through an organization called VVOCF that provides support to children who have been orphaned by AIDS.

Our pedagogical lead is Alexandra Carter, a junior majoring in Comparative Cultures & Politics. She is working with the MSU College of Education to formulate a curriculum (to be adapted upon arrival, of course) and time-frame for workshops. Per OLPC guidelines, the education plan will be based upon the constructionist model of learning-by-doing, and will place an emphasis on collaboration between teachers at the Primary School and students.

John Simpkins, an International Relations junior, is serving as the project coordinator and the technical lead currently. As coordinator, he will be responsible for ensuring the quality and rigor of the proposal, education plan and technical/logistical setup. He has experience with Linux, standard computer hardware, complex network setup and administration and firewall configuration. He is reaching out to the University of Michigan School of Informatics in order to obtain further advice on set-up.

Alex Hill, an International Relations and African Studies senior and founder of SCOUT BANANA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to basic healthcare in African communities, will be serving as our logistical coordinator. His primary responsibilities include the organization of the shipment (a 234kg pallet) to Zonkizizwe, inventorying equipment, reaching out to stateside organizations for funding, scheduling specific aspects of the deployment and serving as a liaison between stateside support staff and those traveling.

We have a robust support staff in place that includes Nicole Iaquinto, a Social Relations and African-American & African Studies junior who worked in Zonkizizwe for VVOCF last summer, Caitlin Blair, a senior and dual major in International Relations and Economics, and Ryan Hagen, a Journalism senior. They will assist in preparation of the budget, fundraising and public relations activities.

More information will be published as the proposal takes shape.

Texas State University - SanMarcos (Morocco)

[Amicitia American School Fes, Morocco]
Morocco is one of the most culturally dynamic places on the planet, from its rich Muslim tradition arriving centuries ago on camels through the Trans-Saharan trade, the nomadic Berber people roaming its breathtaking countryside, and to the recent French occupation of the 20th century. Moroccans colloquially speak an Arabic dialect known as Darija, as well as French in most business settings, and often English due to tourism being Morocco’s main industry, making it a truly “globalized” nation. Yet, Moroccans struggle mightily to compete on the world stage, as they lack development and deal with extreme poverty, which invites a myriad of social and economic problems, leaving a once proud people disillusioned. This has led to 50% illiteracy in the country, girls from poor families often being sold into servitude to make a wage, and public schools promoting trade work, local economic positioning for students, and zero opportunities for a university education in Europe or the United States.

Fez, (the fourth largest city in Morocco) will be empowered by the opportunity to interact, learn, and contribute locally, regionally, and most importantly globally by the influx of 100 OLPC laptops. Fez is considered the most conservative city in a 99% Muslim country, with rigid religious, social, and economic expectations. Social constraints have made it very difficult for women to express themselves as most are forced to leave school at 13. Economically, Fez boasts the largest medina in the world, which forces their commerce to run through a dusty street instead of Wall Street. Fez is situated in the middle of the Atlas Mountains, but in spite of its rough geography, Fez operates as the cultural barometer for the rest of the country (much like New York City). Introducing 100 OLPC laptops to a city that has such influence, has the potential to shift the entire country of Morocco out of its uninvolved, disillusioned, and nostalgia-laden cultural mindset, onto a competing global stage where integrated technologies and ideas/concepts meet their full potential for the betterment of humanity.

Through partnership between Amicitia American School and the 100 OLPC laptops, the city of Fez will tangibly take the first steps towards a new era of self-responsibility, freedom, and future. Amicitia American School serves almost 200 students, grades K-12 (most between ages 6-12), with 85% being local Moroccans. The school only charges 25% of what a normal American school in Morocco would charge, with many of its students being on scholarship. Amicitia partners with the University of Texas – Austin in providing a legitimate American diploma for graduates, which opens the doors for Moroccans to attend universities around the world. With the laptops, Amicitia is going to establish an on-line school newspaper that will connect the students to the world, giving them an outlet for their art/music (Amicitia has creative arts programs), and allowing students to create something that demands their free expression in a culture that often communicates their wants, dreams, and desires for them. Amicitia also has a deep desire to influence the poor schools around the region, hoping to be a liaison for underprivileged schools in the outlying villages surrounding Fez. Aside from the newspaper and the improvements on other schools in the region, the computers will allow students to avoid internet cafes that charge by the minute, give them a never-ending journal for the them to develop thought, and place the world at their fingertips.

Logistically, the children will be in summer school June-August, providing ample time to enter the classroom for computer training and follow-up. As a Texas certified teacher, with extensive experience working with children of all ages and disabilities, I will design all lessons and set summative evaluations of the children’s progress. I have accepted a teaching position with Amicitia that will place me there for the next two years, allowing me to oversee and improve any projects or initiatives that the students might entertain with their laptops in the foreseeable future. The school itself is under 24-hour guard and will house the 230 kg of new computer technology. The children often speak English, but Amicitia employs many local Moroccans who can easily translate, this along with language classes and the fact that I will be a resident of the country for the next few years should bridge the language gap. Financially, the school will be able to support most initiatives due to the tuition that the students pay, along with other money that the school brings in through its business forum and English language school.

Proposal draft can be found at: OLPCorps_TexasStateUniversity-SanMarcos_Morocco. Please comment on its talk page. Otha Graham can be contacted at otha33@gmail.com.

Colorado College (Uganda)

Proposal draft can be found at: OLPCorps_Colorado_College_Uganda_Wrangham. Please comment on its talk page.

Elizabeth Ross can be contacted at kasiisiproject@yahoo.com. She writes: 

Is there anyone else out there wanting to work in Uganda? Can we collaborate? Share transport expenses, give advice etc?
We have lots of experience in Uganda.

Teachers College (Namibia)

Drafting a proposal for 100 XO's for a primary school in the northeastern part of Namibia, Ngoma Primary School. Focusing on teacher support and attempting to answer a research question "How would a teacher's classroom teacher change if every student had a laptop". Have contacted ministry of education and waiting for letters of invites. Will need to find additional funding as travel is expensive from USA to Kigili and then from Kigili to Namibia.

Perien Boer(Doctoral candidate at Teachers College, and Faculty Member at the University of Namibia) I can be contacted at namcorps@gmail.com

Rochester Institute of Technology: OLPC Jinja, Uganda

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) team will be running an OLPC workshop at Kiira Primary School in Jinja, a rural district in Eastern Uganda. The nine week workshop from June 22 to August 21, 2009 (during the school’s second term), will be targeted towards the entire 6th grade stream (129 students, ages 10-12).

The members of the team are: Deana Brown, a Master’s in Information Technology student at RIT. She is currently abroad working on her thesis at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research area is Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

Ihudiya Ogburu, a senior undergraduate student studying Information Technology

Chalmers University of Technology:OLPC Addis Ababa,Ethiopia

We are a group of students from Chalmers University of Technology,Gothenburg, Sweden and will be implementing 100 XO laptops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We will be working with Meskerem 2 Primary School in collaboration with a local NGO (OPRIFS) to successfully implement, sustain, and maintain an invaluable program to the future development of the target kids. See our wiki for more information http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_CHALMERS_ETHIOPIA

Masinde Muliro University - Kenya

Revolutionary change in education through young children

We are 10 Masinde Muliro University students in Kenya and we are interested in working with primary school children of age 6-12 In Kakamega town western Province of Kenya through collaboration program using XOs Laptops and create a movement of education change and sensitization of the impact of XOs and ICT on children of age 6-12 , thus world and locally support OLPC in education change to this children and teaming up with other teams in different areas across the Globe. We already have support from our University Masinde Muliro University, IEARN Organization, VISTVictoria Institute of Science and Technology and ministry of youth affairs. We are still looking for more support groups. let as know through the email: gadonya@hotmail.com

The 750 words Proposal OLPCorps Africa -Kenya Project

Brandeis University - Senegal

Proposal draft


Brock University - South Africa

OLPCorps_BrockUniversity_South_Africa


We are three university students at Brock University, Canada. With the support of local South African NGOs, we will deploy 100 XO laptops to Mitchell Heights Primary School in Mitchell’s Plain township of Cape Town, RSA.

Faced with many challenges, the RSA education system has made solid gains in the last decade as it prepares its learners for life in the 21st century. While literacy rates are quite high, the poverty rate of the country is at about 30%. Early digital literacy skills can provide enhanced educational opportunities for learners which can lead to better employment opportunities for learners upon leaving school.


Khanya and Edunova have agreed to work with us and support us while we are in the Mitchell’s Plain area. They have a presence already in the selected school and for that reason it was chosen. These organizations recognize that sustainability over time is a necessary component to any successful ICT integration programme. They have been distributing computers and providing training for a number of years.

Teachers Without Borders Canada is another supporting organization. The mother of one of our team members is leading a team for a second year of four years of workshops for township educators; their team will be present in the area in July '09.


Please go to our wiki page OLPCorps_BrockUniversity_South_Africa for more information or suggestions.


University of Miami - Mauritania

School: University of Miami, Florida

Team Members: Stephanie Selvick & Sydney Owens

Deployment Location: Mauritania, specific local TBA

We are a team of two African literature Ph.D. students / lecturers at the University of Miami looking to empower the next generation of African women in Mauritania. In particular, we have teamed up with a group of Peace Corps volunteers who support 22 Girl’s Mentoring Centers across the country. While these centers are currently run by both Peace Corps and local Mauritanian volunteers, the goal of local, long-term sustainability means these centers will be solely run by Mauritanians in the near future. At present, the mentoring centers execute several practical (such as, cooking and sewing) and educational (such as, foreign languages and sciences) curriculum for young females who don’t have the means to afford schooling. My teammate and I believe that allowing these females access to laptop technology will both work toward minimizing the gender gap in the fields of science and technology, as well as gives these females an avenue to explore their creativity and express their identities.

We are currently working on our project proposal, and will post it here as soon as we have a working draft. For more information, you can contact us at selvis42@gmail.com


Blekinge Institute of Technology - Ethiopia

We are a team of two post graduate students at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. We are partnering with a local NGO, which is working on community based development program in the city of Debre Zeit in Ethiopia. Currently, Ratson supports eight elementary schools of which four are in the rural part of the city of Debre Zeit. We are currently in constant contact with Ratson to come up with a strategy to deploy the laptops and make the project sustainable.

Please go to our wiki page OLPCorps_BTH_Ethiopia for more information or suggestion.

You can contact us at eybe08@student.bth.se or dame08@student.bth.se

Laval University & The Teacher Training College of Libreville & ENS-B Primary School - Gabon

We are a team of four graduate students. Our team is formed of graduate students from the École Normale Supérieure in Libreville, Gabon and from Laval University in Quebec City, Canada.

Kaçandre Bourdelais is a Master's student in educational technology at Laval University, Canada. As part of a course taught at the École Normale Supérieure de Libreville (ÉNS), he contributed to the development of an pedagogical guide for the use of the XO laptop.

Monéyi Nko Adrien Joseph is a Master's student in the Laval University education program offered at ÉNS in Libreville. He also contributed to the development of the pedagogical guide for the use of the XO. He will be involved in the project follow-up team in October 2009.

Doudou Camara is a Ph.D. candidate in educational technology at Laval University. He holds a Master's degree in data processing. He has been teaching computer science for more than ten years. He has an extensive background in the technical aspects of computer networking design.

Brigitte Mavoungou is a Master's student in the Laval University education program offered at ÉNS in Libreville. She is a teaching adviser in Social Studies for secondary schools in Gabon. She also contributed to the development of the pedagogical guide for the use of the XO.

The credibility and the feasibility of our project is related to the fact that it is, in part, embedded within the institutional cooperation that was intitated in 1999 between l’École Normale Supérieure de Libreville (ÉNS) and the Faculty of Education of Laval University (FSÉ). Therefore, the expertise within these two institution will support us in our efforts to implement 100 XOs in the primary school of application (ÉNS-B) which is adjacent to the campus of the ÉNS.

Tumaini University, Iringa University College, Tanzania

We're students of IT, community development, and counseling in a small, private university in Iringa region (rural Tanzania), and we are planning a number of projects for the region's most disadvantaged children.

Clayton State University, Agnes Scott College - Ghana

We are a team of Information Technology and International Relations majors, committed to helping advance learning among children in Ghana through the OLPCorps Africa program.

University of California, Berkeley - Uganda

We are a group of 3 undergraduates at UC Berkeley. We hope to travel to Uganda to deliver XO laptops to children at the primary school in the rural town of Buwaiswa. We are working in conjunction with the Organization for the Good Life of the Marginalized (OGLM), who works with HIV/AIDs orphans. We are currently working on our project proposal, but more details are on our wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_UCBerkeley_Uganda

California State University, San Marcos - South Africa

Our student team wants to work in conjunction with eduweavers.org to implement 100 XO laptops to eSibonisweni Primary School in South Africa. Through the use of educational technology, we will be able to further the school-to-school partnership program, and ultimately be the teaching interface, promoting diversity, between the children at eSibonisweni, and children in California.

Middlebury College - Egpyt

The Middlebury team of 3 colloquial Egyptian speakers and 1 IT specialist plans to work with the Rotaract Club of Alexandria to deploy 100 XO laptops at the elementary school in Oreen, the village of a member of our team.

Please visit here for more information on our project.

Florida State University - Rwanda

The Global Peace Exchange (GPE) was started in August of 2006 as a student organization at Florida State University to create sustainable, grassroots development projects through student exchanges. In 2008, GPE partnered with Umuryango Children's Network (UCN) in rural Byimana, Rwanda to build a technical center at UCN's home for streetchildren. That same summer, GPE also sent 17 volunteers to develop English language curricula at Byimana's Bukomero Primary School and the Universite Catholique de Kabgayi in nearby Gitarama. From May through July 2009, GPE will send another team of volunteers to further develop English and IT curricula for students and teacher training programs at these sites.

Under the OLPCorps Africa program, GPE plans to work with Bukomero, UCN, and Rwanda's Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) to expand technological and educational resources to primary school-aged youths in Byimana by utilizing our previously well-established partnerships and infrastructure in the region. Please visit our OLPC wiki page for our working proposal.

University of British Columbia - Kenya

We are two graduate university students in the department of Education at the University of British Columbia located in Canada. With the guidance and support of several local Kenyan NGOs, we will deploy 100 XO laptops to Mbita Primary School in Mbita, Kenya – a rural community along the shores of Lake Victoria. The school is very close to the Suba Youth Resource Centre which can also be used as a meeting place for when schools are closed in August.

Primary school finishing rates are sometimes not above 50% in Kenya. Most rural areas have limited access to digital technologies. This community has a small computer lab of older generation stand-alone machines with limited software. A program currently exists to train teachers and women digital literacy skills, but there are no such opportunities for learners in primary or secondary schools.

University of Namibia / University of Illinois / Johns Hopkins - Namibia

Our team of graduate and undergraduate students from universities in Namibia and the United States will come together this June to bring 100 XOs to children and teachers at Mupewa Primary School in the northern region of Namibia. Our team will work closely with the teachers of Mupewa Primary School to empower them with the confidence and skills to integrate XOs into their classrooms, thereby expanding and brightening the opportunities for their students to learn and succeed.

Our wiki page and proposal are in the works and will be up here within the next few days. Contact: frydman2@gmail.com

NGOs

If you are an NGO based in Africa interested in working with a student group to carry out such a project, or if you are working on your own initiatives with educational programs that are, please list yourself and your project here : your name, your project name, where you are based / where you are working, and how to get in touch with you.

The Model International Telecommunications Union Youth Organization

The Model International Telecommunications Union Youth Organization (MODEL ITU) has been formed as a youth based ICT empowerment initiative aimed at assimilating the ideals and principles of the mainstream International Telecommunication Union with special reference to the Special Initiative Unit in Kenya (http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu,).

We aim at bridging the digital divide, youth and children empowerment and entrepreneurship, cyber peace and peace contests, internet safety, environmental protection and social networking.

We welcome any team that has interest in working with us and will. We will respond fast to any inquiry. Thanks . Email (alek.owino@gmail.com or asudi22@gmail.com. MIKE, 2008 ITU ALUMNUS; KENYA

Trees for Clean Energy Network and Magoso School

Trees for Clean Energy Network has been working with schools and communities to promote environmental Education. This project of OLPCorps will open up Africa since it will give opportunity to African child to tell their story, learn more about health, environment and development. This will also enable the children exchange ideas and learn from children outside Kenya. Currently almost all children under 12 years have no idea of what is a computer and even their Teachers. I look forward to working with one of Corps in Magoso school and assisting him or her to develop this great idea to children of Magoso school.

Radio Station in Malawi

Hi, I am Gloria Masanza and i work as a sub-editor at a privately -owned radio station in Malawi, Central Africa. I have a friend working with the American Peace Corps in the country and she told me about the one laptop per child program. I have become so fascinated with the program since she told me, and we are working to link up with an organisation which is already working on children's rights. So I would like to know how we can get the intern teams visit us and see what we can do for our children. There are a lot of children here in Malawi who cannot even explain what a computer is, and over 90 percent of Malawi's children have never seen a computer, so this may just be a stepping stone, to the future. My e-mail is gmasanza@yahoo.com.

Children Rights International - Ghana right!Fight child labour!

This is Bright Appiah, briahus @ yahoo.com, the director for Child Rights International.
We have interest in a team visiting or serving as station in Africa.

Our commitment is to provide an ongoing voice for children and also reaffirm the faith of young people’s hope for a better future.

Please visit our website Children Rights International. thanks


Kijabe Primary School (Kenya)

My name's Becca Nelson and I'm currently living in Kijabe Kenya working with Kenyakidscan.org. There is a rural kenyan school nearby that would benefit deeply from 100 laptops--and has an infrastructure in place to handle the years following your team's departure. In addition, there is a school of about 120 children in Nairobi (slum area) that also would benefit and has accountable, technical people in the vicinity.

Let me know if you're looking for a kenyan adventure. :). thanks! nelson.rebecca@gmail.com.


The Ungana Foundation

As a result of the 1994 genocide, Rwanda gained one million new orphans, still surviving today as the potential new leaders of Rwanda's future. Orphaned children around the world face many obstacles including depression, lack of home support, minimal education, and hindered self-development. Starting June 2009, the UNGANA Foundation seeks to alleviate these odds by introducing 'Goals for Goals' to the ambitious youth of Gisenyi, Rwanda. Utilizing developmentally responsive activities, the 'Goals for Goals' program creates a space where Rwandan children can express creativity and voice and empowers the children with the life skills necessary to improve their own circumstances.

The Ungana Foundation is working on setting up an OLPCorps program in Rwanda for Summer 2009, but we need help - notably with IT setup and long-term funding. Please contact Ashley Linford, Programs Associate for more information at: ashley@unganafoundation.org

www.unganafoundation.org

Madagascar School Project

The Madagascar School Project is a small NGO based in Alexandria, Canada. In October 2008, we opened our elementary school in the rural village of Ambatoharanana, Madagascar. In a culture where a child's potential is often minimalized, the school has validated them as contributing members of their society. It is amazing how in such a short period of time, the children (and hence their community) have grown in terms of knowledge and new attitudes. Imagine what more could be accomplished if each student was provided with an XO to engage the global community and to equipe them with skills to ensure their competency in a world increasingly entwined with technology. For more information on the MSP, please visit www.madagascarschoolproject.com. If you are a team or individual seeking affiliation with an NGO and our work and philosophy are of interest to you, please contact me, Joseline Beaulieu, at holycatfish@sympatico.ca . I'd love to hear from you. The MSP may be a small organization but we can provide a team with excellent support. Thank-you for your interest. Hope to hear from someone soon.

Joseline


Blessing the Children International

BCI (Blessing the Children International) is a nonprofit organization working with several hundred children in Ethiopia, Africa. We regualary send teams and individuals to Ethiopia to work with orphaned, abandoned and impoverished children. We are completing construction on an elemenary school, and also sponsor/support over 100 children's care & Education.

Visit our website: Blessing the Children (www.BlessingTheChildren.org) Or email us at info@BlessingTheChildren.org

The Township Baseball Academy-Philippi Township, Cape Town, South Africa

We are a registered South African Non-Profit Organization employing a unique intervention model for at-risk township youth, combining the physical and social benefits of team sport with principles of achievement, positive communication, and discipline, borne through experiential education on the playfield, and transferred into the classroom. We work with a group of approximately 200 children, most aged 6-13, have access to an indoor activity center, and conduct year-round programming 3-4 days/week in baseball and academic enrichment. We would be delighted to hear from groups interested in working with our committed group of children in Cape Town. We currently utilize 8-10 American exchange student-volunteers through the University of Cape Town so we have familiarity with facilitating volunteer programming. Please view our website: [2] and contact Executive Director, Ian Edelstein, e-mail: ian@townshipbaseball.org, for more information.

Girls' Mentoring Centers in Mauritania

Peace Corps Mauritania supports 22 Girls' Mentoring Centers across the country specifically designed to help underprivilged girls who have a strong interest in academic pursuits. The centers are supported by the local communities and run by Peace Corps Volunteers and locally trained mentors ensuring a better opportunity for longer standing sustainability. For more information, contact Ginger Tissier at gtissier@gmail.com.

Kasumba Nursery and Primary School, Mubende, Uganda

Kasumba Nursery and Primary School is located in the rural town of Mubende which is 160kms from Kampala City in Uganda. The school has a kindergarten for children 4-6 years and a primary section for children between 6 - 12 years.

Mubende District is among the poorest performing districts in all academic levels in the country, and requires a lot of uplifting in terms of computers, books and other resources. The school is surrounded by more than 15 other primary schools whose performance is relatively poor. This school and the surrounding schools can benefit very much from the support and training that can be provided by the OLPCorps during that period. The school uses English as medium of instruction to the children. The school has the infrastructure and the teachers who can be trained to further the work of the project within the school and the surrounding schools.

We shall be excited to have a team of OLPCorps who can come to this school and contribute to its development and the surrounding environment.

For more information contact: kasnursery@yahoo.com

eduWeavers.org & eSibonisweni Primary School (South Africa)

My name is Dave Hall, an individual volunteer working with eduWeavers.org (of San Rafael, CA) and eSibonisweni Primary School (27° 4'14" S, 32°28'13"E) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to implement an initial 80 XOs and an internet link at the school.

Please check out our videoclip made in February during the first phase of the implementation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psF_Yh0U9c4

On behalf of the headmaster of the school, Mr. Jubilee Tembe, I would like to extend an invitation to teams seeking a rural school destination to help further develop the project. Over the next few weeks I will be conducting a video survey of all the surrounding schools in the district for the purpose of developing a "pull-oriented" community-wide scale-up proposal and a visual database of candidate schools to help eduWeavers.org build their school-2-school programme. As an individual I will be available in a local ground support role, acting as guide, assisting with video documentation, liasing between community and local education authorities and helping to make your project as lasting success.

Contact details: actionscientist@gmail.com

Global Family Rescue (Tanzania, Uganda)

Global Family Rescue is is a non-profit faith-based charitable organization passionately dedicated to bringing hope to families living in extreme poverty throughout the world. Our goal is to help these families progress from extreme poverty to self-sufficiency within three years, and to increase the economic strength and stability of their communities through project based initiatives focused on clean water, education, vocational skills and more.

Working in several villages in Tanzania & Uganda. Funding might be possible.

Interested student groups may contact: david.stupay@globalfamilyrescue.org, renataw21@gmail.com


Bosco-Net (Bamako, Mali)

Distributes and supports educational computing resources to schools in Bamako, Mali.

Sylvestre Kamissoko <boscnet@yahoo.fr> Tél:00223-66-79-44-32 Bamako-Mali

Schools

Great Commission Academy, Kamwaura, Kenya

School profile PDF

If you are interested in contacting or partnering with this school, please contact Shikoh Gitau, shikoh.gitau@gmail.com.

Janet Primary School, Dundori, Kenya

Janet Primary School profile: (.pdf, .doc) Picture of school: Janet.jpg

If you are interested in contacting or partnering with this school, please contact Shikoh Gitau, shikoh.gitau@gmail.com.

Centre Africa Obota, Bamako, Mali

If you are interested in contacting or partnering with this school, please contact Yacouba Berthe, YBerthe@hotmail.com, or CAOMail@hotmail.com.

Mali is a French-speaking country, so fluency in French is a plus. Berthe speaks English.

Other Ways to Participate

We're looking to reach university students across the world to participate in the OLPCorps Grant Program - this is a global learning movement. If you can translate a short one page letter from English into any other relevant language, e-mail OLPCorps@laptop.org to help out. You can also edit these wiki pages, too.

Please request to join our Sunday 4PM or 6PM EDT conference calls.

Newer Minutes from Sunday's Public Call -- March 8th 6PM - 7:30PM.


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