Next L2L Trip to Lesotho - March & April 2014

Normally, this time of year, I am either in Lesotho or preparing to go to Lesotho.  Prior to 2012, L2L conducted deployment and training in November and December, at the end of the Lesotho school year.  After the 2011 training, the local staff decided they would rather have training before the start of the school year.  So, our last trip took place from December 2012 into February 2013. 

Unfortunately, we ran into some serious scheduling problems because the Ministry of Education and Training made very last-minute changes to the school system schedule, delaying the starting date by two weeks and conducting teacher training that overlapped with our planned training. 

To avoid a similar problem, our next training trip will be during the school term, in March and April 2014.  This will coincide with Spring Break for L2L volunteers who are teachers in the U.S., making it easier for them to take time off work for the trip. 

[Note:  We don't travel to Lesotho during the U.S. summer months because of weather considerations.  June through August is winter in Lesotho, which can mean heavy snowfalls that make travel impossible, and subzero temperatures, which makes training difficult as there is no heat in the classrooms or homes where volunteers stay.]

Three L2L volunteers from the U.S. are planning to make the trip in March and April 2014 - myself, Kathy Plath, and Sarah Gardner.  Kathy is a teacher in Colorado who helped on the last trip.  Sarah is a teacher in Indiana and is on the L2L Board of Directors, serving as Secretary.  Sarah has been actively involved in L2L from the very start.  This will be her first trip to Lesotho.

The trip will be shorter than previous trips, probably a total of 3½ weeks.  We will not be doing any new deployment, but will focus on student and teacher training.  Because Nohana Primary School has declined our offer for additional training in 2014, we expect to be working almost exclusively at our second site, Kokobe Primary School.

We are waiting to hear from Alice Ranthimo, the principal at Kokobe, and the School Committee to confirm the exact dates of training.

In the coming months, Sarah, Kathy, and I will be working on lesson plans in preparation for the trip.

- Janissa

 

Rotary Club Funding Received

Laptops to Lesotho has received a grant from the Unadilla Rotary Club, Maseru Rotary Club, and Rotary International for $7,500.

The money will help support a Mosotho in-country volunteer, provide additional technical support to the schools in Ketane, expand our audio-visual capacity for creating and translating country-specific educational materials, replace malfunctioning touchpads and weak speakers, and purchase more XO laptops and solar chargers.

A huge Thank You to these Rotary Clubs  for their support helping us improve education in rural Lesotho!  A special thank-you to Rotarian Donald Tuttle who facilitated this grant.

Grant Specifics

1. Volunteer Living Expenses    $2,400
   For housing and food for the project volunteer while staying in Ketane
2. Volunteer Travel Expenses    $360
   For work-related trips between Ketane and Maseru by the project volunteer
3. Communications    $300
   For work-related phone and internet services for the project volunteer
4. Technical Support    $1,000
   For hiring I.T. specialist(s) to install and maintain project equipment at the schools
5. Audio Recording Equipment    $300
   For purchase of voice recording and editing equipment for creation and translation of educational audio materials
6. Computer Peripherals    $600
   For purchase of 150 computer mice to use in place of malfunctioning touchpads and 150 headphones in place of weak speakers (problems inherent on the XO-1 laptop model)
7. New XO Laptops    $2300
   For purchase of 20 new XO laptops, charging station, router, and spare batteries.
8. Miscellaneous Expenses    $240

Unadilla Rotary Club, New York

District 7170

www.unadillarotary.org

 

Maseru Rotary Club, Lesotho

District 9370

www.rotarymaseru.org.ls

 

Rotary International

www.rotary.org

 

 

 

- Janissa

I'm Ba-aaack!

After a long, very difficult period in my life, I am back from my family leave and re-immersing myself in my Laptops to Lesotho work.  Although I'm still not 100%, and will not be back to full speed for a while, I hope to start our project moving forward again.

 

I would like to thank our L2L Directors, Sherrie Howey and Sarah Gardner, for covering for me in my absence.  Thanks too to all the L2L volunteers and funders for giving me their unconditional support.  You really helped me, more than you can know.

 

- Janissa

 

 

OLPC XO Batteries Out of Stock

*ilovemyxo* posted:

"We have officially depleted our stock of replacement batteries for the XO laptop.

 Unfortunately we are unable to order more from OLPC." 

This is not good news. The XO batteries wear out and need to be replaced periodically. Unless we can find an alternative source, this could cause us serious problems in the future.   

- Janissa   

 

L2L President Taking Family Leave

Hi All,  Sorry I haven't posted any news of late, but I have taken family leave from L2L work to take care of my terminally ill parents.  If you need any information or assistance, please contact one of our Board Members, Sherrie Howey or Sarah Gardner.  Janissa

OLPC Hits $100 Price with Ad-Supported XO-4s

From: One Laptop Per Child News

---

Soon coming to an XO-4 near you (photo by Robert Nelson) In what can only be described as an unexpected development OLPC Association announced that it has managed to hit the originally envisioned $100 price the XO laptop is still so widely known for. This was achieved by borrowing a page from Amazon's playbook and introducing ad-supported versions of the brand-new XO-4. Depending on the specific hardware configuration (non-touch display vs. touch display, 1GHz CPU vs 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM vs. 2GB RAM, 4GB Flash vs. 8GB Flash) the ad-supported models will cost between $100 and $138. At this point it is unclear how much cheaper that is than the non-ad-supported XO-4 models as their prices haven't been announced yet. One very interesting aspect of the ad system which Poisson D'Avril (OLPC Association's Director of Educational Marketing) mentioned is that it can be managed by deployments: „All of the content in the ad system is curated and selected for appropriateness by OLPC Association and leading independent reviewers of age appropriate digital advertising in North and South America. Beyond that we will also provide best-practice guides and tools to our implementation partners in the public and private sectors. This will enable them to customize the ads seen by their pupils and teachers and therefore maximize their impact." One thing that D'Avril didn't want to comment on is if deployments will also receive a cut of the advertising revenue or whether their main benefit will be the reduced purchase price. Asked about the risk of ads distracting pupils and teachers when using the machines she responded: „Naturally we did not want to risk negatively impacting the learning experience enabled by using the XOs. So all throughout the ad system's development we ran comprehensive tests in pilot rollouts in several of our ongoing projects in North and South America. As a result and after discussions with some of our leading partners it was decided that ads will only be shown when the XO is starting up, shutting down, and on the newly added screensaver when it is in power-saving mode." Beyond that D'Avril also mentioned that for some countries special agreements with local advertisers had been signed: „In some South American countries advertisers have been given the option to replace the famous XO startup sound with their client's jingles. In other cases advertisers will include product samples such as soft drinks, sweets, comics, but also school books and pencils with every XO-4 that is shipped." At this point it's unclear whether a similar approach will also be used with the XO Tablet which should have become available at select Walmart stores in March. Similarly there's no word on whether the software components of that ad system will make an appearance in an update for the older XO-1 / XO-1.5 / XO-1.75 models. Now overall of course the question is whether this development should be considered a good or bad move by OLPC Association. On the one hand it will likely enable more children in developing nations to get XOs thanks to the lower price. On the other hand I can't help but feel that exposing children to more advertising isn't something I can truly support. Especially since I still vividly remember how annoyed I was when we found that after a renovation my secondary school's gym had been turned into one big advertising space for a certain soft drink manufacturer... So what do you think?

Sending Money to Lesotho: skip Western Union, go Moneygram

There is no such thing as PayPal in Lesotho, so sometimes it is difficult and very expensive to send money there.

I've been trying to send ~$220 (M2000) to our Volunteer Mamatsepe Sejanamane to cover her transportation to Kokobe Primary School and her first month of living expenses.

International bank transfers, at least from my bank, are outrageously expensive - $75 per transaction (USBank). 

Western Union recently opened an office in Maseru.  They're open 24/7 so you can receive money at anytime.  They charge about 12% + a fee, which seems like highway robbery.  But none of that matters, because their computers have been down for some time, and transfers aren't going through at all.

Another volunteer, Fortunate Gunzo, suggested trying Muruku or MoneyGram. I checked Muruku, but they don't service Lesotho.

I hit the jackpot at MoneyGram.  They have agents at Standard Banks all over Lesotho, including one in Mohale's Hoek.  Their fees are much less than Western Union, $18 for an instant transfer and $10 for a 3-day transfer.  That I can handle.  One slight disadvantage of MoneyGram is that the receiver can only get the money during regular banking hours.

It was fairly easy to send the money.  I was able to make the MoneyGram transfer online using an L2L Visa card.  If you don't have a credit card, you can use a bank account for the online 3-day transfers. 

The verification process was a bit involved.  They asked some questions that amazed me they would know the answers to.  Then they asked me to call to confirm that I knew the person I was sending money to.  There are lots of scams coming from Africa, getting people they don't know to send them money for fraudulent schemes.  Once I convinced MoneyGram I'd met and worked with Mamatsepe in person, they okayed the transfer.  From now on, any transfers to her will be automatically approved.

They gave me a reference number to send to Mamatsepe.  I was a little concerned sending that number via a nonsecured email.  Hopefully, it won't get intercepted and the cash stolen before she gets to the bank. 

She informed me she's gotten the number.  The money will be available as soon as the banks opens.  I(It's Friday night there now.) With luck, she'll be in Kokobe before the end of next week.  YEA!

For future payments, I'm going to try to get a pre-paid reloadable cash-card for her.  I can send the card over to her with Tony in a few weeks.  That way I can go online and load money onto the card once a month, she can withdraw it from an ATM anytime it's convenient for her, and she doesn't have to carry large amounts of cash around.

- Janissa