From E-rate to providing computer classes for Haitian schools.

The telecommunications act of 1996 included a bold plan to increase the use of computers and information technology in U.S. schools and make sure that every school in America had internet access. One of the programs this legislation started is commonly called the E-rate. The purpose of the E-rate program is to provide funding to every school that applies so that they can improve their connection to the internet and keep their information technology current. From the start of the E-rate program until I moved to Haiti, I worked off and on as an E-rate consultant working with teachers and staff to make sure every student at their schools would learn how to use the internet and also have high-speed internet access.

So it was natural that when I returned to Haiti last year with 10 donated laptops from Drexel University and over 30 desk top computers from Philadelphia Biblical University and Bucks County Community College that I would seek to help Haitian schools offer their students computer courses and an introduction to the internet.

In the past year and a half I have provided desk top computers to 3 Christian schools and also have opened a small cybercafé. The cybercafé provides an opportunity to help introduce Haitian students to the internet, and also as a source of income in Haiti for Ambassadors in Sport – Haiti.

While visiting the schools near the cybercafé to tell them about our grand opening and invite students to come and visit us, I found out that of the 9 schools in our area, only 2 had any computers at all. The other 7 had no computers and no way of introducing information technology to their students.

So in conjunction with a Haitian friend who has lots of education and experience in teaching computers, we put together a program where we will bring our laptops to these schools and introduce students to computers, the internet, word processing and spreadsheets. In an effort to keep the price affordable for students so that as many as possible can benefit from the training, we figured out a way to offer “volume pricing” where the more students sign up, the lower the price will be.

Today we visited this school to try and encourage more students to take advantage of this course. As we talked to these well-behaved students in their uniforms, beads of sweat formed on our temples. Not because we were nervous, but because these high school students were crowded into a room with half-height walls 30-40 in a class sitting on wooden benches while all the other classes were going on around us so we had to yell to be heard. There was no air-conditioning, no carpet to absorb the echo of all the teachers yelling to be heard, and no comfortable chairs for the students to sit on – only hard wooden benches. There were not even any fans because the school only has enough electricity to power a single light bulb in each room. The only teaching “technology” in these rooms were a blackboard and chalk. Yet these students listened to us and asked some very good questions. Only about ¼ of each class had ever touched a computer, and some of them were about to graduate!

Please pray for this initiative which we plan to start in March after Haitian state exams are done.