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Getting a visa is not difficult. Our country director can write a letter to the embassy. I have a friend visiting now. There is only one embassy in the US (in Washington DC). You want to give yourself at least a month just to be on the safe side to mail it there and back. I think my friend's was returned to him within 2 weeks. Most volunteers have friends and family who come to visit; I've never heard of anyone having problems.
Places we could go to
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- She has contacted volunteers who work in our schools and with various clubs to see if there is any interest for work at a school or other centers.
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- They are promoting the GMCs
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- because there is a chance at longer range sustainability.
- We would prefer to spread the benefits of this program rather than saturate one village, but really this would be great for any community in Mauritania.
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Kobenni, Magta Lahjar, Kaedi, Bogue, Atar, Selibaby
- The youth GMCs are located in the following places (spelling may be different from maps you check; things are always spelled different here between french, english, and poor arabic translations - all of these places should be listed on the google earth file I sent you):
Kobenni, Magta Lahjar, Kaedi, Bogue, Atar, Selibaby
Bababe
Potential town we could work in:
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- Ginger received an email from a volunteer in a place called Bababe.
- He is an environmental education volunteer and would be interested in hosting you.
- I know his community - it's one of the better ones in terms of openness to outsiders and French is more common. He does not have a GMC. His village is located between Bogue and Kaedi (an hour in each direction), both of which do have GMCs... so perhaps those would be three good sites to work between. I asked him to send me a write-up. This is what he had to say:
Bababé is a wonderful town that is right on the border between between being a "small West African village" and a "city." Although it has over eight thousand people it still has the feel of a small village; say the name of someone's house and almost everyone knows where it is, the village elders still gather in the marketplace every evening, and when asked to describe their town people most often say it is like one family. Yet, at the same time the town is rapidly developing; two massive diesel generators were recently installed and now provide power from noon to midnight, it is rapidly becoming more independent from the two regional capitals on either side, and many local, national, and international groups are working together to improve the conditions of life here. With the arrival of electricity, internet is becoming available as well. There is currently a cyber cafe and small portable internet phones that use cellular technology and connect via USB are available at a reasonable price. The town very much has a sense of growth and forward progress. One of the other things people mention when describing Bababé is that the educational system is strong. There are three primary schools as well as a large middle school and high school. Geographically the town is in the south of Mauritania, two kilometers away from the Senegal River and about fifty kilometers each from the regional capitals of Boghé in the west and Kaedi in the east. The town is also its own department, which includes a number of smaller villages in the immediate vicinity.
Here's a copy of a report written by people at Columbia on our GMCs.
-Ginger
And notes from the first conference call the other night (which will hopefully help answer questions):
The deployment guide will be ready by Friday and posted on the wikipage, which will hopefully help teams have a realistic picture of the scope of the project; it will give project ideas from things already done in other parts of the world. Teams are encouraged to check their proposals to make sure they are in accordance with the deployment document; turn in a new one if necessary. This is an important document.
Teams are advised to write in all needs. Make no assumptions - most things are beyond the scope of what the OLPC group can foresee. Include all details, no matter how insignificant they may seem (power bars, extension cords, etc.) into the final budget.
The training in Rwanda will cover many areas - constructionist viewpoints, technical related tasks; it will provide the opportunity to work with Rwandan schools where it's already set up and meet teams from around the world. At least 2 team members need to travel to Rwanda. Teams are allowed to bring teachers of someone from the NGO that you will be working with. The 10-day training is not part of the 9-10 weeks of time for the proposal work. People are welcome to arrive in Rwanda up to a week prior, if they wish extra time to plan better with teachers. Mentors at the conference are people who have past experience. They will partner with teams. OLPC will match teams to the mentors strengths.
OLPC is taking care of transportation logistics and costs to deliver the xo laptops to the recipient country. Laptop distribution will be done with the help of the UN to bypass customs and other red tape. UNDP or UNICEF will set up a point for the local partners to receive the computers (in most cases this will be the regional capital... and then from there, the team or NGO will have to arrange transportation to the sites). State that you will need to move the items in you detailed budget.
The wiki page - this may be the first time people are using this format. Use hyperlinks to save on space for things that may need further explanation to give background but don't affect the overall proposal. Post your proposal on wiki - it is not mandatory, but in your better interest.
Teams need to turn in 750 word proposal (using hyperlinks to minimize and provide background information), a letter from the local NGO, and local community.
There will be multiple deployments funded in the same country. If there are multiple applications, the cheapest budget doesn't necessarily win.
Does it have to be 1:1 saturation of laptops to children? There is a fear of what the reality will be like compared to the proposal. Include in the proposal that there are grey areas that will possibly need adjustment once teams get to country. It is good to be aware that there is a need for flexibility. This is a limited resource, so a need to share the xo laptops between children is understood. There is a trade off for who you give the laptops to by the saturation model. Do you allow each child 30 minutes a week or only a specified handful of kids a whole week? The more time, the more it tends to reach out and gives access is what OLPC wants an active tool for learning.
An example: Kitani primary school, South Africa - the 5th graders were chosen even though the school has several hundred students. The teacher redefined everything. Every class got access one day a week and anyone was welcome to take them home. The teacher is now the lead for the OLPC program in South Africa. The downside is there is not enough time; this is the limiting factor per student. But when there are limited resources, what else can you do? OLPC will create a wikipedia page to talk about ownership.
OLPC would like to encourage that the children can take them home after school rather than the old model of a computer lab, which is only available at certain hours.
For people applying to travel with university grants, OLPC will write a letter of endorsement, but only if they see the project proposal being drafted. There is an understanding that on the condition the team is accepted, the team will receive the funds, while those who are not accepted will return the funds.
Editing wiki - put drafts online to gauge how many people are applying where they are, etc... One group's proposal has been received already from Sweden. The OLPC team will try to read those that have taken the effort to put up their proposal ahead of time and give feedback (so try to get your proposal to wiki). If you have specific questions (anything urgent or pressing), contact the OLPC team directly. The wikipage idea is new for a lot of people. Don't be afraid to edit, you can remove a post the next day if you like. Nothing is permanent. Provide feedback if there's a mistake on wiki. The proposal that will be used is the one posted on the 27th or emailed. You can always ask more questions. That won't hurt your proposal.
The OLPC idea with this new way to launch the xo computers is to connect deployments through training and networking; this includes communication through the wikipage, the corps listserves, and the conferences in Rwanda and the MIT conference in October. Networking is a large part of this (which will be fairly informal prior to the March 27th deadline, once proposals are reviewed, teams can do more) - there's a large benefit posting on the wikipage so local partners can reach out to teams. Get the draft online and post to the mailing list!
of smaller villages in the immediate vicinity.
Columbia Report on GMCs
Minutes from Paul Commons' 1st Conference Call, answered questions about OLPC etc
Minutes from Paul's 1st Conference Call from Ginger TissierPaul will hold this call again 6pm US EST. The OLPC team is at their computers ready to answer questions.
Peace Corps General Info
The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michiganto serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. Since that time, more than 190,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.
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We have 28 volunteers in the Girls' Empowerment and Education sector, which oversee the day-to-day operations of 22 Girls' Mentoring Centers (GMC), which serve over 1000 female secondary school students across the country. The GMC initiative is quite specific to Peace Corps Mauritania and is a cornerstone in our approach to supporting girls' education and schooling in a country where 50% of the girls enrolled in the first grade will not make it to the seventh (or the first year of secondary school) and only 73 girls out of 1000 will get a diploma enabling them to secure decent employment. Girls' retention and graduation rates in secondary and higher education represent a serious challenge for the Government of Mauritania.
Informatioon about Mauritania
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania gained independence from French colonial powers in 1960. The country is over 1 million km2 (roughly the size of California and Texas combined), with a population of approximately 3.3 million people. Two-thirds of the country is Saharan Desert. The majority of the population lives concentrated in the capital city, a large port (supports fishing and mining activities) in the north, and in the Senegal River Valley region in the south. Ethnic groups include the White Moors, Black Moors, Halpulaar, Soninké, and Wolof. Half of the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.