[Grassroots-l] NOW: Contributors Program Mtg! (Fri 2PM Boston time, #olpc-meeting)

[Holt]

Please join us Right Now reviewing the latest OLPC/Sugar community 
projects over IRC Live Chat:  (2PM EDT Boston Time Friday)
http://forum.laptop.org/chat

Then type at bottom:
/join #olpc-meeting


AGENDA:

* New projects & libraries -- teaching them Community Outreach:
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects#XO_Laptop_Lending_Libraries

* Which projects might you enjoy Mentoring?!
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects
  http://rt.laptop.org/Search/Results.html?Query=Queue=%27contributors%27

* Fast Review of the 3 latest (greatest!) HW/Project Proposals -- please
  join us advocating for and/or reviewing shortcomings of these proposals:



1. OLPC 4 Geospatial Learning - Munster, Germany
   http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=47210
   http://gi-at-school.de (blog coming soon)

   Requests 2 XO's over 8 months

   Project Objectives:
   Developing and testing software module(s) within the context of
   "Understanding space & environment using Geoinformation" in primary
   schools


2. Home Schools Project - Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan
   http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=47311
   http://www.afghan-satellite-teachers.net

   Requests 9 XO's over 12 months

   Project Objectives:
   Our objective is to bring education to the one-half of Afghan children
   who are unschooled and for whom there will be no school available,
   according to the Strategic Plan of the Afghanistan Ministry of
   Education, before they grow into illiterate adults. MTSA has been the
   chief voice (if not indeed the only one) advocating for these children
   that they be provided with technologically available educational
   solutions, including in particular the OLPC laptop computer.

   MTSA seeks to deploy the XO laptop in "home schools" or "community
   schools" in rural areas of Afghanistan. The laptop computers will serve
   both boys and girls who have otherwise little hope of achieving
   literacy. Based on the experience in India with computers made available
   to slum kids without instruction (the Hole in the Wall Project),
   children in Afghanistan should be provided with the XO laptop even
   before the government can provide them with a trained teacher and before
   they can have a bricks and mortar school building.

   What does the future look like for these children today growing up
   illiterate in the mountains of Afghanistan? The girls will be married
   off at 12 or 13 to become illiterate mothers before they have become
   fully women, while the boys will follow their fathers as hardscrabble
   farmers or as cannon fodder for local war lords or for the Taliban.

   OLPC and the XO, with our help and yours, can dramatically change this
   reality.


3. Vung Vieng Fishing Village Laptop Project - Bai Tu Long Bay, Ha Long 
Bay, Vietna
   http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=47367
   http://rt.laptop.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=44253

   Requests 10 XO's + 2 parts machines over (undetermined) months

   Project Objectives:
   This village is very poor.  During certain times of the year, it is
   not unusual for families have only two meals a day. Only 25% of the
   young adults and adults in the village can read.  The Vung Vieng
   Village School has very few school supplies.  Responsibility for
   family is a very high priority.  Young adult and adult children support
   take care of their parents and grandparents.  Primary /measurable/
   goals of the Vung Vieng Fishing Village Laptop Project are:

   1. To increase literacy and computer literacy among children and
      adults in the community;

   2. To prepare a higher percentage of village children for
      secondary school and work opportunities in and outside of the
      village;   

   3. To achieve an increase in subsistence income for the families,
      and improved child nutrition and health through the visibility
      and partners of the Vung Vieng Fishing Village Laptop Project
      and by education gains.

   4. To create a pool of home grown "young adults" and "adults" who
      can contribute to the future financial support, education,
      governance, and community life of the Vung Vieng Fishing Village.

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