[OLPC India] OLPC Afghanistan starting!

Mon Oct 20 01:10:05 EDT 2008

Dear Sapan,

the minimum requirement would be for 6 months, flight ticket supported,
accommodation, food and stipend provided. If you are interested in coming
or being a part of volunteer team, please email me to
svetla at paiwastoon.com.af with your CV and areas where you think you can
contribute to OLPC.  Thank you!

To Holden:
Thanks you for the link! I will have a look into it and get in touch with
you if more things need to be discussed.

To Edward:

Thanks for your points. The idea behind this is that more children have
access to computer, as the supply is very limited - don't forget that
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Besides that the
computers will be in the school where all children will have a chance to
get to know computer, their parents will have access to it in the evenings
to get a learning for themselves - e.g. about hygiene, about how to start
a business, how to get better crops out of their fields, connecting to
buyers and supplies of agricultural products etc. And this shall at the
end prove that it can contribute to economic development of the rural and
urban areas and that in the future when parents' standard of their living
increases they can purchase XO themselves and whole family - both children
and parents can use it thus leading to 1XO per 1child :)

It is per wish of Ministry of Education and with support of USAID/ASMED
and hopefully will be a new way of how XO can help in developing world.

Kind Regards,

Svetla

> hey for how long is the requirement for afghanistan....i mean the duration
> of stay..
>
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 5:48 AM, Holden Bonwit <hbonwit at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Edward, I completely agree with your comment about the need for students
>> to
>> have their own laptop (eg. not share hardware), and to be able to take
>> them
>> home after school hours.
>> Svetlana, this summer I taught students in India with the OLPCs, and I
>> published our lessons (both lesson plans and things to change for the
>> next
>> deployment) on the web:
>> http://whereisholden.blogspot.com/search?q=OLPC
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> -Holden
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 10:56 AM, Edward Cherlin
>> <echerlin at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> 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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>>
>>
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