Lending a Hand with Computer Basics

Over Christmas i had the opportunity to do some fundraising (bingo's) and purchase two computers from a local High School. On January 1st we (the village) received the goods, 2 Compaq Pressario's in decent condition and i set them up in the Mayors office adjointed to my house.

Since then the office has been alive with kids, mostly grades 8-13, some older but none younger (not due to lack of interest by the little ones, they had to be excluded from the program for the time being), learning how to type and use the basic Microsoft office programs, i.e. Word, Powerpoint and Excel.

Nights are shifted between the boys and girls, at the parents request, and run from 4-5 and from 7:30-9:30 at night. In a few weeks i hope to add a program for the 8th grade kids in Samalaeulu's Primary School, to allow all of them to get their hands on the key board.
As foreigh as Computers can be for new commers these kids are really picking it up fast. We use a basic typing program, Typer Shark, practice mouse skills with Solitare (its working), and i've been making simple lessons (fonts, sizing, tables, pictures, spacing) for Word and PowerPoint, soon Excel.

Having access to computers outside of the school setting is very reare in Samoa, not only because of the lack of machines but more so because of the deficiency in educators and maitenance knowledge. Computers left in this climate without a fan or AC actually get moldy and die very quickly. When a school or village gets some machines they are very relictant to use them and dont know how to set up a good climate to ensure longevity. A current PC volunteer has just been assigned to act as a regional coordinator for the island of Savai'i, to help increase village's knowledge. Also, the most recent capacity building group (teachers) was mostly IT specialists, placed in schools with computers in order to get their progams running.

The future of my small lab will hopefuly include growth. Currently the time kids have is very limited and the numbers in attendace keep growing. Short Term may include some fundrasing for more machines, (maybe with some help from home???) which can be bought used and relatively cheap from NZ. Long Term is leaning on a program set up by the Ministry of Communication who has been setting up Communiaction Centers on both islands. These include computers, fax, printers, maybe a projector, and focuses on linking villages to the internet. This looks promising for us but wont happen until late this year, Sept. or Oct.
Let me know if you are interested in supporting this program, either by fundraising or sending over used machines (laptops are the easiest), and i'll get the info togeather, costs/needs.

Enjoy the pics below.