[OLPC India] OLPC Afghanistan starting!

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 2:42 AM, Svetlana Senajova
<svetla at paiwastoon.com.af> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Perhaps Afghanistan is not the first place you think of when considering
> your next vacation or internship.  But since OLPC are donating 10,000 G1G1
> machines to Afghanistan and is working with the top level of the Ministry
> of Education this could very well become a showpiece for OLPC in S. Asia.
>
> Other 1,000 XO laptops are donated by telecommunication company Roshan and
> PAIWASTOON Networking Services Ltd. is responsible for the complete
> project implementation in upcoming months. XOs will be introduced to more
> than 85,000 children as they will not be deployed at 1XO to 1 child but 21
> XOs to 1 school in form of a computer lab, reaching 283 schools across the
> country.

That is a great shame. One of the most important aspects of the OLPC
program is the ability of children to own their XOs and take them
home. They get the greatest advantages of mesh networking and
collaborative software not in class, but when doing homework together.
It is also essential for parents to see what the children are doing.

> We are looking for 2 Interns / Graduates / Motivated volunteers to help us
> building the capacity of the local team.  We need to operate university
> outreach programs, training, and a fair bit of direct server config in
> advance of having sufficient locally built capacity.   We are looking
> through various graduate/student/internship organisations.
>
> We can offer flight support, accommodation, and a living stipend.
>
> Afghanistan day to day in most provinces and most places remains pretty
> safe - one can walk around, go out, visit people using taxis or your own
> car.  Driving can be just a little chaotic, but nowhere near as bad as in
> India.  If you look beyond the media there is a lot to see here,
> hospitality that even exceeds other developing countries, and really rapid
> progress.  There are some places (like the south) that are dangerous, but
> in Kabul and the north things are pretty stable.  One just needs to know
> places to go to and places to stay away from (like military bases, big
> foreigner parties, etc).
>
> Right now we are half way through setting up an open source localisation
> team for Afghanistan and building the open source community.  For those of
> you who are more interested in remote contributions to Afghanistan
> specifically, a chance is here too.
>
> Afghanistan could be the case study that shows the ability of the XO to be
> at the center of redevelopment. If we can make the XO work here - then we
> can prove to the world that it can work almost anywhere!  You might hear
> on the news about the chronic waste of money out here, the hundreds of
> millions missing, wasted, and worse. And you know how cost effectively the
> XO can change that.  The great thing about Afghanistan, is being a
> development work in progress, we can together, and will, improve that
> situation.  I hope we can find some people to join us on the ground and
> help make that happen.
>
> For info about OLPC Afghanistan please visit www.olpc.af or email me at
> svetla at paiwastoon.com.af.
>
> Thanks/Regards,
>
> -Svetla
>
> Svetlana Senajova
> Business Development Director
> PAIWASTOON Networking Services Ltd.
> svetla at paiwastoon.com.af
>
>
>
>
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>



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