OLPCorps Muskingum College Lesotho

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Introduction

We know OLPCorps Africa isn't accepting applications for 2010 yet, but we've been laying the ground work for our project for several months now and want to start putting it together here.

2010 Draft Project Proposal

This proposal is a work in progress ...

Two U.S. college students, a Mosotho primary school teacher, a Peace Corps Volunteer, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer have teamed up to distribute 100 XO laptops to children at Ha Nohana Primary School in Ketane, Lesotho, from June through August 2010. Our goal is to provide the children of Ketane with tools to educate themselves, to expand their learning community, and to become pro-active in their community with the skills to address and resolve local problems.

The computers will be given to children in standards 1-7 (low age), the computers will be owned solely by the children, not the school (individual ownership), and all the children in the school will receive computers (saturation). Ultimately, our long-term goal is to make Ketane the core of a extended program that provides XO laptops to disenfranchised children unable to attend school and then eventually expands to all children throughout the district. We hope that, through strong community organization, after we deploy computers in each community, their portion of the project will become self-sustaining and completely community-run.

Ketane is a very remote, rural community which is accessible by road and small plane. Ha Nohana Primary School is not on an electrical grid, but the area does have wireless access to the internet via cellphone coverage. There is a very small computer school (two Windows-based computers) for adults, started in 2008 by our team member, Andrew Dernovsek. The computer school has a solar power system for charging the computers. Two XO laptops, acquired via the Give One Get One program, were donated to the primary school earlier this year. Enthusiasm by staff and students over these XO computers prompted a request to find a way to get more of the XO computers.

Tsela Mapeshoane, our Project Manager, is a teacher at Ha Nohana Primary School. There is strong support from the school's principal and teachers for this project. The Ketane community also has several well organized groups of dedicated individuals whom we are working with to provide long-term support for our project. Peace Corps/Lesotho staff members have also expressed support and are helping us with the project.

Sesotho and English are the official languages of Lesotho. Two team members are fluent in both, as are the teachers at the primary school. The primary school students study English, but most are not fluent in it, and not all community members speak English. The three members of our team in the U.S. are studying Sesotho but do not expect to be fluent by deployment, so student instruction and community interactions will initially be done in English with the teachers or our team members translating into Sesotho.

Because students will be on break for about half of the deployment period, we will be working outside the normal classroom setting part of the time. We are working with the school staff, students, and parents on scheduling and logistical details.

June through August is winter time in Lesotho, with below freezing temperatures and deep snow possible. We will be providing heaters and fuel for the classrooms to ensure a comfortable learning environment. Because snow may make logistics difficult at times, we are prepared to be flexible in our scheduling.

We will expand the computer school's existing solar power system so it can be used to charge all the XO computers at the primary school. We also hope to raise additional funds to acquire individual solar chargers so children can use the computers on their own after school hours and on holidays. We will build storage and charging cabinets at the primary school and will set up the network server either there or at the computer school. We will acquire the necessary hardware and establish a contract with the cellphone company to provide internet access to the children.

Training ... more to come



Background on Lesotho

Obstacles Children Face

Isolation, poverty, poor nutrition, and an extremely high HIV/AIDS infection rate make life extremely challenging for the children of Ketane. Lesotho has the third highest infection rate of HIV/AIDS in the world. The life expectancy in Lesotho has dropped to just 39 years. The epidemic has had devastating effects on family structure. The current generation of young adults and parents has been decimated so that the vast majority of today's children have lost at least one parent, and many have lost both. Some orphans are raised by grandparents, while others live in homes with a child as the head of the house.

Educational Opportunities

Primary education is free in Lesotho, but because of responsibilities at home, some children are unable to attend. Secondary education is not free, and many students cannot afford it. Given these circumstances, alternative options for learning outside the normal classroom setting are vital in order to educate these disenfranchised children. After we have set up the XO laptop network at Ha Nohana Primary School, we hope we will be able to distribute laptops to children unable to attend school. However, because these children are scattered over a vast area, and because there may be some resistance from family members who fear the laptops will distract the children from their family responsibilities, this will require far more time than we can devote to it in the first year of our project. If we have time in 2010, we will start laying the ground work for this portion of the project by locating some of these children and, where possible, meeting with their families to gauge their receptivity to the idea.