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
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