Book Donation!

Recently an English education company teaching in Japan named INTERAC made a sizable book donation through the Ungana Foundation, to the community of Gisenyi, Rwanda. The gentleman spearheading this charitable act is Brian McDonough, Manager of the Curriculum Development Department (pictured below in the center). Among the books they have sent are actual English language lesson books for children and adults, story books, college entrance exam preparation materials, and much much more. All in all, more than 300 books were shipped and should arrive in a few months. We can't thank INTERAC, Brian, Emi Takenaka and Ashley Linford (whose connections at INTERAC made this possible) enough for their efforts to improve the English literacy of Rwanda's poor.

When the books are received, we'll post pictures and more info regarding the placement in Rwanda.

Health Care Program

A very gracias Brianne Moffitt and David Kuwada worked with the Ungana Foundation to put together a Health seminar for OB/GYN nurses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their focus was on complications and infectious diseases, as well as pain management. These nurses graduated and receieved certificates for their participation. Below are some pictures of the seminar and Dave and Brianne's visit to a Rwandan hospital. Notice the XO Laptops used to help the nurses follow the PDF slides of the seminar, very cool!

Getting to know Rwanda...

Classes and the XO Team

Back in the US

What a run we had in Rwanda! Government consulting, university consulting, One Laptop Per Child, and much progress towards greater development goals in Rwanda and Congo. All of the US citizens working with the Ungana Foundation are now back home, while the local help is continuing the efforts for the next month and a half. Alyssa Callister and myself will do what we can to fundraise and build awareness about the project, while refreshing our minds and gathering new strategies to move forward. So after a few community events and an OLPC conference in Boston next month, we're back off to the land of a thousand hills.

Alexander Erickson
Managing Director, Ungana Foundation

The Deployment Assistance Program (XDAP)

The Ungana Foundation is currently building an assistance program that compliments the laptops from One Laptop Per Child. Its called the Deployment Assistance Program, or XDAP. Below is a summary of the program:

In 2008 President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, signed a deal with One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC) to purchase over 100,000 laptops for Rwanda’s primary schools. OLPC is based on a product called the “XO” laptop; a piece of hardware utilized for children’s education more than a general processor. While understanding the XO is a step towards understanding technology, it drives overall education both through matriculation into the classroom and within a home environment. Requiring a combination of technical service and pedagogical training, the XO laptop is less a computer and more a virtual textbook. Children grasp this concept quickly while schools, teachers, and parents require a host of preparation modules before the community takes project sovereignty.

The Ungana Foundation’s XO Deployment Assistance Program (XDAP) provides this preparation including long-term support and after-school learning activities designed to maximize the XO’s value. Assistance means technical service for the Internet connection specifics and hardware provisions. It means teacher training, and student workshops. It means creating a regional laptop center for XDAP. This center serves as an information portal for recent private purchasers of the XO in Rubavu District, Rwanda. It makes laptops available, answers buyer questions, and tracks and manages XO laptop deployments across the district.

Simply put, children will benefit from these machines; imaginations will be exercised; and learning will take place in ways never before captured in a formal education setting.

We are seeking funding for this program from various sources, if you would like to help or you want to see the detailed XDAP plan, please email us at: info@unganafoundation.org

Alexander Erickson - Managing Director, Ungana Foundation

Differences in the Health Care World

July is wrapping up and UNGANA’s nurse seminars are ready to impact the people of Goma. Brianne, our nurse, arrived to Rwanda on Saturday and it’s great to see the enthusiasm of our last volunteer of this summer. To start off Brianne’s experience of Africa I took her to tour the Gisenyi Regional Hospital. It was great to see her reactions of the vast differences of the clinics and hospitals from Africa verses the United States. She was awed by the conditions of the delivery rooms and equipment used to treat patients. It was good to hear her say “I can’t wait to show the doctors and nurses at my office these pictures to remind them how good we have it”. The visit was a great reminder to Brianne and I of the many medical circumstances we take for granted at home.
Even Rwanda, which is one of the fastest developing countries in Africa, is still leaps and bounds away from achieving the health care standards of most western communities. UGNANA hopes that the seminars of this week will just be the start to the many programs that will be implemented into the region. This exciting event is just the beginning of the many great resources that will soon be flowing to Africa. I can only look forward to the changes that will occur here and the hand that UNGANA will have in its success. Thanks for reading and I plan on bringing more great news here soon.

Brianne Nurse Volunteer

Hey, everyone my name is Brianne Moffitt. Dave introduced me a little bit previously, but I am indeed the RN. I am from Logan, Utah and I still reside there. I graduated from school three years ago and have worked for Cache Valley Women’s Center ever since. I was so excited when the Ungana Foundation asked me to come to Africa.

As we headed to the border of the Congo I have to admit I got nervous and scared a bit. I have only been in Rwanda for a few days and have only heard scary things about the Congo. As soon as we met up with our friends from the Congo I felt a lot more at ease. They knew exactly where to take us and how to get there. The city was so busy, the drivers were crazy. That probably ended up being the most dangerous part of the trip. We met at a school classroom which we appreciate them letting us use. When I came to Africa they told me I would be teaching 7 nurses a day instead it was like 16-20 nurses, most of who were male which was interesting to me. Doctor Jonathan was there to translate and he did a terrific job. Everyone participated and asked questions. It was so fun to hear the questions they had for me. For example one nurse asked, “Why are Americans scared of breastfeeding”? It was hard to answer that without smiling. When I told them I had never dealt with a pregnant AIDs patient in Logan, Utah there was shock. I told them I had to read about it and ask the doctors I work for about treatment. They did not believe me they kept asking me if I was lying. Their faces were unforgettable when I read statistics from the States on AIDs. It was a very humbling experience. They wanted to know how we do it, why are there so few people with AIDs. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

When I was finished with all of the material they asked if I could come back for more days. I told them I didn’t have any more material then they asked if I could get more. Throughout the seminar I could not tell if they were enjoying the seminars so it was great to see their responses. It was so fun/interesting to compare stories and treatments. They have taught me so much. When we left they had one of the nurses stand and thank us. It was so sweet and nice of him. It was such a great learning experience for me and hopefully for them too.

 Utah State University has written a nice article on our work over here in Rwanda with the XO computers and OLPC.  Thanks for helping to get the message spread in the U.S. about Ungana Foundation's mission and goals.  

Alyssa Callister

President

Ungana Foundation

It's always fabulous to read some nice publicity about our work here in Rwanda!  Thanks for helping get the word out that we are partnered with wonderful organizations doing  great work.

...Yet among the most exciting of endeavors is a joint-venture between Université Libre de Kigali (ULK) and the Ungana Foundation, based in Gisenyi....

Alyssa Callister

President

Ungana Foundation

It was the day of pomp and circumstance.

Today we hosted a formal event, designed to give parents, district and city officials, and school administrators a look at the wonderful opportunities that are coming their way.

The event – highly publicized and attended by several popular leaders, including Senator Balinda, who is also the founder of the Independent University of Kigali (ULK) – was covered by Rwanda Television, and showed the country some of the things that ULK and The UNGANA Foundation are doing to enable progress.

We got the chance to showcase some of the XO laptop activities that the children at the E.P.GI Primary School have been working on over the last couple of weeks, and it was honestly amazing to hear the reaction of the crowd when one of our students logged onto her XO, opened the Web browser, and searched for images of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame. She then wowed them with her ability to copy an image to the clipboard and paste it in a text document, then write a sentence about the President.

That’s after two weeks of having the XO for one hour per day.

This is a perfect example of the limitless opportunities that come as a result of the XOs. The kick-off event began a process that – with the guidance of The UNGANA Foundation, the teachers, school officials, and the entire community – has the ability to transform these children’s education.

Power into the hands of those that crave it.

Coy Whittier
Communications Associate
The UNGANA Foundation

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