Hands of Charity Teacher Volunteers

 Fred Juma Wakasiaka’s Teacher Team in Western Kenya Bungoma District Schools. 

IN BUNGOMA WESTERN KENYA

Writing and Eating

Rose and Passy in a crowded class of more than 100 kids in the same class using write activity on the xo to write stories about African way of preparing food.

They wrote an interesting story about how to prepare brown ugali with greens called murenda, we wanted to copy paste to this report from the xo but we had a challenge where the pc refused to open up and read instead I will quote part of it in this report.

Kids wrote the procedure as follows;

1. Get bean leaves burn the in ashes
2. Get plastic/metallic tin and open small holes at the bottom
3. Fill the tin with ash and compact it
4. Pour in water and collect the filtrate
5. Mix the filtrate with the green leaves of murenda and keep on steering till it boils to soft and slippery
6. Add in milk to make it more delicious
7. Prepare your brown ugali which is a mixture of finger millet, dry cassava and sorghum grinded.

They wrote this to show their friend kids from western countries to read and apply the same in the country and show their cultural way of preparing food.

It’s very hot for the kids to seat in the room at the market place and have fun with the xos instead they seat outside where there’s fresh air and calm environment for them to learn

Kids were writing stories about collection of trash and proper disposal both in schools and the community as a whole.Before they left to their homes they did trash collection demo at the market center by heaping and burning the polythene paper trash.

Words and Our XO Laptops Meet the Challenge of Schools Isolated by Poor Roads

Kids of Butonge primary in xo session whereby they used write sugar lab activity to write stories on why they should keep the environment clean and green. In the stories typed, we had issues like reduction of communicate diseases that can be borne due to poor sanitation and jiggers can also breed in dirty and sandy places where hygiene observation is too low as far as sanitation is concerned.

Bonnie with kids of Kibeu primary school after computer sessions on his way back to the market place on footing with a heavy back carrying xo laptops. Kibeu primary school is situated in very remote place where even to get a motor bike is problem. Sometimes kids of kibeu primary support to pull the back since it has wheels, kids feel much impressed as they see it moving when pulled.

Art and Math

4^th February STD seven of Butonge primary school did paint activity on the xo by drawing mathematical shapes. The shown math shape was for pupils to calculate the shaded part whereby they were to find the area of a rectangle thereafter, they were to calculate, the area of the circle which was done very well.

The class was full of consultations of kid to kid on how they should control the cursor, so as to come up with proper drawn structure.  However, each group that came up with a proper shape rejoiced to have leaded others at the same time calling- mwalimu tumemaliza [teacher we have finished] in a rotational manner.

The class had a total of 99 pupils, 3 teacher assistants, 1 teacher and 23 xo laptops. Time taken was 21/2 hrs. Report from Bonaventure Maskika.

Butonge primary kids using paint sugar lab activity to come up with house structures insight is Rose assisting kids how to use the paint activity shapes.

STD 7 of Butonge primary used paint to come with structures like houses and thereafter they case how many math shapes are found on structure and they discuss how to calculate and the formulae to be used to the expected answer.

The reason of using these structures is to build kids with math skills and formulae at their fingertips when it comes to math solving problems.

94 pupils, 22 laptops, 1 teacher and 3 assistant teachers

Marketplace Center : Kids Won’t Leave – Numbers are Growing

Bonaventure Masika sitting recharging the laptops is the leader of the teaching team – a growing group.

From 1^st of December 2012 to 15 December 2012, we have been averagely dealing with 40 kids in our centre daily from Monday to Saturday every week. When it comes to departure time kids are just forced to leave the place since they have great interest and they wish to continue having fun with the laptops

What is being done at the market place as per sugar laptop activity?

Record sugar lab activity-Kids are using the activity to create and record role plays in form of movies showing how the HIV virus attack the immune system of human being and weaken the white blood cells. Remember that this is not done in one group; instead they are arranged in different groups with the help of xo teachers who 1^st facilitate health talks about the effects of HIV on any human health.

After talks kids divide themselves to act their role plays

Those playing virus par pretend to have deep hostile voice ready to attack the white blood cells and those playing white blood come in plenty well armed to the virus, at the end of the game the virus seem to win the game as the white blood cells becomes weak and ask for support which comes from the armed forces called ART/ARV.

Write sugar lab activity-its used to type the narrated stories from the outreach made by the learners and saved for future reference.

The most important think kids target to type is issues coming out as new ideas of which they use as tittles for discussions in their focused group dialogues.

They do these dialogues by use of chat sugar lab activity as teachers monitor their discussions to direct and correct them where necessary.

Scratch sugar lab activity-After great exploration to the xo kids have come up with many interesting games that are really stirring up their imagination and as a result they feel technologically fit for they can make animal, human, birds and mathematical related scripts and put them in motion at the same time.

When they work with scratch you could hear “miuuh” the cat’s sound which makes them automatically group themselves to see which group can do better than the other.

This kind of competition is really encouraging them to create scripts that are very educational. Jeremiah Lusaka a former STD 8 Butonge primary school is very much interested in the following scratch projects in which he is the best among other learners starting with flow kiss followed by; Simulation plays e.g spinner, gravity blocks, simple circuit and weather simulations.

Interactive art is much often in HIV communication-garden secret  and expression creator and last but not least, a big number of kids coming at the market centre enjoy scratch games as scrolling demo, fish comp and pony.

Generally, a lot was done on the scratch sugar lab activity by kids who really enjoyed merry x-mass beats as it was around the corner among other related music found in the scratch files. You would have not imagine that in this market place center room you would find kids dancing with faces of joy  to beats that played on the XO Sugar Lab activity.

 Browse sugar lab activity has done a lot for the kids at the market place as far as science and other related information from the activity is concerned.

Antony Mabonga a form one student at Khasoko high school testifies that he is getting books like the blue sky and reading stories that are improving his English.

Not only is he benefiting from the blue sky books but also becoming rich in science knowledge as he does his research on science books such as chemistry, biology and physics. Antony joined in by saying that he is now mastering the periodic table in chemistry,  a science subject and different terminologies in the subject.

Apart from books he is also being informed about world and nature images from the above mentioned sugar lab activity as well as dictionaries, sample music and world maps related to Geography.

Tux math sugar lab activity- Math command training academy is really helping learners to master simple mathematical table such as multiplications, subtraction, addition and division thus having them at their finger tips. Edwin wanjala a STD 6 Alicia forty children’s home says that he is really benefiting from the initiative as he believes that he will do better in questions related to multiplication, addition, division and subtraction at an increased speed with highest accuracy  as well as fractions.

Jesse Mwita STD 6 Butonge primary school says the market place centre had given him an opportunity to do a lot on paint activity on the xo sugar lab as he can now use shapes to come up with different structures as a house, a square, rectangle, a football pitch among other mathematical related shapes and coloring and he is full hopes of doing well in drawing and design in future if he will continue using the xo laptop technology.

A general comment about record sugar lab activity by the kids is that the activity is activating their personality as they can role play before people with no fear of HIV and interview older people of their parent’s age while recording their voices for future use with their colleagues at school.

17/12/2012-It was a historic day for our market place center as we received 120 kids at  ago and all wanted to access the xo laptops for learning.

The room was full of joy, dancing, singing thus curiously watching to see what was happening for knew learners who had interest and a lot of eagerness to know how to operate the xo machine.

Some of the kids spent a lot of time on record activity as others role played in drama to be recorded. Later on, they grouped themselves with a lot of struggle and competition to get closer to the laptop so as to see what was being done.

Having achieved to get more learners of age, we had a problem of inadequate space and insufficient number of laptops hence could not ultimately meet their needs.

18/12/2012-The number of kids coming for XO Sugar fun is now 96. They did a lot on scratch sugar lab activity by playing games mentioned above by Jeremiah Lusaka.

Those who were attending the class for the second time found it too difficult to play/have fun with it but by the help of their colleagues who had mastered it, they confidently learned and came out happily.

19/12/2012- The market place was noisy as kids were composing and singing songs  warning kids of their age  of the dangers of HIV if do not learn about the virus. Messages in the songs were that the virus has no boundaries as it affects the entire generation whether rich or poor, old or young.

After entertainment, they came up with interesting role plays with similar messages to the songs to show how riches can lead to HIV transmission if not properly observed.

How it was done;

Kids who role played as rich people used money to convince young girls to befriend them without knowing their HIV status. But the most important thing for the girls was to be bought what they wanted instead of caring about their health.

A continuation of the role play showed how these young girls on other hand befriended young men who also didn’t want to care about their HIV status but believed in sexual relationship.

After all these, xo teachers facilitated a discussion at the market centre to enrich kids with HIV prevention measures and it was a fantastic day for the whole community of Bukokholo.

From 20^th to 24^th December kids were very busy preparing for x-mass celebrations so mostly kids used XO scratch activity to play Christmas related games and the chat activity do discuss how different homes had prepared for the celebration- kind of meals that would be prepared for the celebration and dressing styles for church services.

It was a daily group discussion with an average of 45 kids present

27^th-31^st of December 2012

On 27^th kids started arriving at the market place at 12.00 noon after a short break of x-mass celebration.

This date kids came in shifts because they were arriving at alternative times with a big number coming inn in the evening hours as from 3-4 p.m showing a lot of learning interest basically on a most child centered scratch sugar lab activity. The market place was full of learning noise in the room as the kids wanted to know what they had not known before. At the end of the day i.e. 6.30 p.m total number of kids that reported at the market place was 43.

On 28^th kids reported at the market place starting from 10.00 am though in shifts since they did not arrive at the same time for the session.

The day was specifically for role plays with a lot of related health talks to inform kids the dangers of HIV.

Way of facilitating the health talks was:

• What have you learned from the play?
• Do you know that there’s HIV affecting the community?
• Have you ever come across those people living positively with HIV?
• As a young person what can you do for those people infected with HIV?
• Do you know any HIV control measures that can help someone not contract the virus?

This kind of activity started at 2.30 p.m when we had 45 kids present at the market place but as from 10.30 am kids were preparing what to perform in the afternoon as planned before.

Despite the fact that as some kids were performing, others were using the xo laptop to record video and interesting enough kids were pushing each other in competition to be seen on the xo laptop screen.

At closure time, we had 65 kids including those at the adolescence stage who were much impressed with the role plays and health talks performed at the market place.  Adolescent boys and girls promised to be coming to boost children’s talent through xo technology and at the same time use them for IT learning.

On 29^th, 30th and 31^st we allowed kids to have fun with the xo laptop on any sugar lab activity of their choice and interest.

When kids heard this, they were extra ordinarily happy for they could do a lot by exploring the xo laptop for three days continuously.

From our simple evaluation, most kids did a lot on scratch sugar lab activity.

Kids at the market place used scratch project examples to educate themselves as follows:

Speak up, story and big fish eating small ones games to discuss about;

• How the virus eat the white blood cells.
• Global warning over the environment
• One day; what somebody might do?
• Dangers of idling-outcome/ results of an idle mind
• Bottled water-why spend much buying bottled water?
• Save our trees-what is the importance of saving trees?
• Disposables-why should we do proper disposables?
• Smoking kills in relation with drug abuse and
• Vampire power

                                       CHALLENGES

Sometimes computers were insufficient for the kids if they reported in big numbers resulting to more than five kids sharing a computer.

Xo laptop batteries not sustaining power for a long time as it used to be at first.

Video Compilation of Students at Work with XO Laptops

This video is a complitation of several videos taken by the Hands of Charity teaching team. A documentary filmmaker, Elayne McCabe, edited and put together this compilation.  The students are from the STD 7 & 8 in the Bukokholo Primary School in the Bungoma district of Western Kenya.

http://youtu.be/L_mUNad-sg4

DECEMBER WORK OLPC/HOC BUNGOMA.CHILDREN AND YOUTHS CONTINUE TO SMILE

marketplace good

OLPC BUNGOMA HANDS OF CHARITY TEAM 

HOLIDAY SESSIONS AT THE MARKET CENTER BUKOKHOLO

From 1^st of December 2012 to 15 December 2012, we have been averagely dealing with 40 kids in our centre daily from Monday to Saturday every week. When it comes to departure time kids are just forced to leave the place since they have great interest and they wish to continue having fun with the laptops

What is being done at the market place as per sugar laptop activity?

Record sugar lab activity-Kids are using the activity to create and record role plays in form of movies showing how the HIV virus attack the immune system of human being and weaken the white blood cells. Remember that this is not done in one group; instead they are arranged in different groups with the help of xo teachers who 1^st facilitate health talks about the effects of HIV on any human health. After talks kids divide themselves to act their role plays.  Those playing virus par pretend to have deep hostile voice ready to attack the white blood cells and those playing white blood come in plenty well armed to the virus, at the end of the game the virus seem to win the game as the white blood cells becomes weak and ask for support which comes  from the armed forces called ART/ARV.

Write sugar lab activity-its used to type the narrated stories from the outreach made by the learners and saved for future reference. The most important think kids target to type is issues coming out as new ideas of which they use as tittles for discussions in their focused group dialogues. They do these dialogues by use of chat sugar lab activity as teachers monitor their discussions to direct and correct them where necessary.

Scratch sugar lab activity-After great exploration to the xo kids have come up with many interesting games that are really steering up their minds and as a result they feel technologically fit for they can make animal,human,birds and mathematical related scripts and put them in motion at the same time. When they work with scratch you could hear “miuuh” the cat’s sound which makes them automatically group themselves to see which group can do better than the other. This kind of competition is really encouraging them to create scripts that are very educative. Jeremiah Lusaka a former STD 8 Butonge primary school is much interested in the following scratch projects in which he is the best among other learners starting with flow kiss followed by; Simulation plays e.g spinner, gravity blocks, simple circuit and weather simulations.

Interactive art which is much used in HIV communication-garden secret  and expression creator and last but not least, a big number of kids coming at the market centre enjoy scratch games as scrolling demo, fish comp and pony.

Generally, a lot was done on the scratch sugar lab activity by kids who really enjoyed merry x-mass beats as it was around the corner among other related music found in the scratch files. Despite the fact that when in market place center room you could find kids dancing with faces of joy according to beats that were being playing on the xo sugar lab activity.

 Browse sugar lab activity has done a lot for the kids at the market place as far as science and other related information from the activity is concerned.

Antony Mabonga a form one student at Khasoko high school testifies that he is getting books like the blue sky and reading stories that are improving his English.  Not only is he benefiting from the blue sky books but also becoming rich in science knowledge as he does his research on science books such as chemistry, biology and physics. Antony proceed by saying that his now mastering the periodic table in chemistry a science subject and different terminologies in the subject.

Apart from books he is also being informed about world and nature images from the above mentioned sugar lab activity as well as dictionaries, sample music and world maps related to Geography.

Tux math sugar lab activity- Math command training academy is really helping learners to master simple mathematical table such as multiplications, subtraction, addition and division thus having them at their finger tips. Edwin wanjala a std 6 Alicia forty children’s home says that he is really benefiting from the initiative as he believes that he will do better in questions related to multiplication, addition, division and subtraction at an increased speed with highest accuracy  as well as fractions.

Jesse Mwita STD 6 Butonge primary school says the market place centre had given him an opportunity to do a lot on paint activity on the xo sugar lab as he can now use shapes to come up with different structures as a house, a square, rectangle, a football pitch among other mathematical related shapes and coloring and he is full hopes of doing well in drawing and design in future if he will continue using the xo laptop technology.

A general comment about record sugar lab activity by the kids is that the activity is activating their personality as they can role play before people with no fear of HIV and interview older people of their parent’s age while recording their voices for future use with their colleagues at school.

17/12/2012-It was a historic day for our market place center as we received 120 kids at  ago and all wanted to access the xo laptops for learning.

The room was full of joy, dancing, singing thus curiously watching to see what was happening for knew learners who had interest and a lot of eagerness to know how to operate the xo machine.

Most of the kids majored on record activity as others role played in drama to be recorded. Later on, they grouped themselves with a lot of struggle and competition to get closer to the laptop so as to see what was being done.

Having achieved to get more learners of age, we had a problem of inadequate space and insufficient number of laptops hence could not ultimately meet their needs.

18/12/2012-The number of kids coming for xo sugar fun reduced to 96. They did a lot on scratch sugar lab activity by playing games mentioned above by Jeremiah Lusaka

Those who were attending the class for the second time found it too difficult to play/have fun with it but by the help of their colleagues who had mastered it, they confidently learned and came out happily.

19/12/2012- The market place was noisy as kids were composing and singing songs  warning kids of their age  of the dangers of HIV if they are not informed about the virus. Messages in the songs were that the virus has no boundaries as it affects the entire generation whether rich or poor, old or young.

After entertainment, they came up with interesting role plays with similar messages to the songs to show how riches can lead to HIV transmission if not properly observed.

How it was done;

Kids who role played as rich people used money to convince young girls to befriend them without knowing their HIV status. But the most important thing for the girls was to be bought what they wanted instead of caring about their health.

A continuation of the role play showed how these young girls on other hand befriended young men who also didn’t want to care about their HIV status but believed in sexual relationship.

After all these, xo teachers facilitated a discussion at the market centre to enrich kids with HIV prevention measures and it was a fantastic day for the whole community of Bukokholo.

From 20^th to 24^th December kids were very busy preparing for x-mass celebrations so mostly kids used XO scratch activity to play Christmas related games and the chat activity do discuss how different homes had prepared for the celebration- kind of meals that would be prepared for the celebration and dressing styles for church services.

It was a daily group discussion with an average of 45 kids present

27^th-31^st of December 2012

On 27^th kids started arriving at the market place at 12.00 noon after a short break of x-mass celebration.

This date kids came in shifts because they were arriving at alternative times with a big number coming inn in the evening hours as from 3-4 p.m showing a lot of learning interest basically on a most child centered scratch sugar lab activity. The market place was full of learning noise in the room as the kids wanted to know what they had not known before. At the end of the day i.e. 6.30 p.m total number of kids that reported at the market place was 43.

On 28^th kids reported at the market place starting from 10.00 am though in shifts since they did not arrive at the same time for the session.

The day was specifically for role plays with a lot of related health talks to inform kids the dangers of HIV.

Way of facilitating the health talks was:

• What have you learned from the play?
• Do you know that there’s HIV affecting the community?
• Have you ever come across those people living positively with HIV?
• As a young person what can you do for those people infected with HIV?
• Do you know any HIV control measures that can help someone not contract the virus?

This kind of activity started at 2.30 p.m when we had 45 kids present at the market place but as from 10.30 am kids were preparing what to perform in the afternoon as planned before.

Despite the fact that as some kids were performing, others were using the xo laptop to record video and interesting enough kids were pushing each other in competition to be seen on the xo laptop screen.

At closure time, we had 65 kids including those at the adolescence stage who were much impressed with the role plays and health talks performed at the market place.  Adolescent boys and girls promised to be coming to boost children’s talent through xo technology and at the same time use them for IT learning.

On 29^th, 30th and 31^st we allowed kids to have fun with the xo laptop on any sugar lab activity of their choice and interest.

When kids heard this, they were extra ordinarily happy for they could do a lot by exploring the xo laptop for three days continuously.

From our simple evaluation, most kids did a lot on scratch sugar lab activity.

Kids at the market place used scratch project examples to educate themselves as follows:

Speak up, story and big fish eating small ones games to discuss about;

• How the virus eat the white blood cells.
• Global warning over the environment
• One day; what somebody might do?
• Dangers of idling-outcome/ results of an idle mind
• Bottled water-why spend much buying bottled water?
• Save our trees-what is the importance of saving trees?
• Disposables-why should we do proper disposables?
• Smoking kills in relation with drug abuse and
• Vampire power

                                        CHALLENGES

Sometimes computers were insufficient for the kids if they reported in big numbers resulting to more than five kids sharing a computer.

Xo laptop batteries not sustaining power for a long time as it used to be at first.

marketplace good

XO Laptops? What are they? Kids Role Plays

These students and their teacher Bonaventure Masika have done a great job dramatizing the XO laptop for Kenyan kids.

http://youtu.be/-ip8UP4RtTs

http://youtu.be/dNZ8e_Lsnk8

XO Laptops at Math Camp

Math Camp in Kisumu Brings XO Laptop Kids Together with Kids from Other Parts of Kenya:  all having fund with Math and the XO laptops

12/08/2012-Sunday

It was a great day for xo club members representatives to visit Kisumu city the third biggest town in Kenya.Bungoma xo team was with jovial moods as they started their journey by bordering a motor bike ride to Mayanja where they bordered a matatu to Bungoma town to boarder a matatu transporter to Kisumu town where the camp was to be facilitated.  XO club member of St. Augustine Sitabicha surprised other xo learners that he had never been in Bungoma town since he was born and he did not believe his eyes to such tall buildings in the town and wondered how they were constructed and who did such kind of work.

No sooner had we entered the matatu drive than I and Rose answered several questions as XO club members Jeremiah of Butonge, Ruth of Kibeu, Joseph of Bukokholo and Sylvester of St.Augustine schools who wanted to know every shopping center we passed by and as we were responsible and it was a great opportunity for the learners to be exposed we answered the we can. On our way to Kisumu we passed through Kakamega town where our learners thought that they have arrived in Kisumu town but we informed them that we still have a long journey to go this showed that kids were eager to attend math science camp.

On our arrival to Kisumu town skirts from far Xo learners saw plenty of water and they wondered how comes we can have big land covered by water without knowing that it was Lake Victoria that cuts across three countries of East Africa as they were informed kids busted with great joy of having an opportunity to see the lake physically instead of seeing it on maps on written materials.

As we arrived in Kisumu town we were welcomed by Peter Amunga who directed as to a tuktuk ride to Kibuye railway grounds. After getting an evening tea snug we took the xo learners to join the AMSTREF team in the camp in Lutheran school of physically challenged.

In the school we got the AMSTREF team already arrived and Herine lead us with introduction as to know each other in the camp and later on kids had their supper and went to the bed for a sleep after a long travel so to wake up early to start the camp activities the following day.

It was a showcase day for Jeremiah of Butonge primary that showed others how to use turtle blocks to construct a football pitch. He did his presentation as others followed his instructions to do the same.Co ming up with the structure of football pitch appeared difficult t knew learners but they did their best and concluded that it is an interesting activity and it needs a lot of thinking and imagination to come up with intended shape. Before Jeremiah’s presentation we officiated our xo introduction to learners from different schools and it was done by Rose XO teacher assistant Bungoma where learners were told parts and their functions. Later on Bonaventure introduced Turtle Art activity on how to move and arrange turtle blocks to come up with right angled triangle, square, rectangle and semi-circle as examples before the showcase.

After the showcase their was a competition to who to posses the xo laptop.

I call this day a XO day because a lot of work was done on xo sugar lab activities; Tuxmath activity improved the speed of learners in multiplication, addition, and subtraction and division. While in the hall pupils showed their multiplication skills as they did multiples of 3, 5 and 10. Learners used speak activity to write questions about maths for example, what is mathematics, discount, marked price, hire purchase among other questions.

During night hours and session pupils used record activity to take photographs and videos for the events taking place in the hall.

Salisbury Boys and Girls Club XO Club

A Letter from A Member of the XO Club in Salisbury at the Boys and Girl’s Club to Bukokholo, Butonge and Kibeu kids.

Hi my name is

Salisbury XO Club Member to Bukikoholo, Butonge, Kibeu and Eshbinga XO Club Members

 Olivia and I’m telling you about Salisbury in Salisbury there is a lot of animals like deer and foxes. And there are a lot of different types of food. For example spaghetti! And this is how you make spaghetti–first you put the spaghetti in a pot of boiling water. Then you cook tomato sauce and meat together. Then when the spaghetti is done take the water out of the pot. Then combine the spaghetti and the sauce with the meat. Then you have spaghetti!

 And in Salisbury there is a trail called the ghost trail because the trail used to be a track for a train. Then the train crashed and everyone who was on the train died. And to this day people say it is haunted by ghosts of people who died in the crash from the train.

In Salisbury there are a lot of fun places for example the beach. At the beach I like to swim in the ocean and go fishing! Once I almost caught a fish – it was a tuna. It got away.

 Lindsay lives near the ocean. She likes to jump over the waves. Makayla also lives near the beach. She can go swimming anytime, except in winter.  She likes to ride the waves.

 Food they like is strawberries, chicken, broccoli and cheesecake.  Cheesecake is made of soft cheese, milk, eggs, vanilla flavor mixed and then baked into a cake.  Then we put strawberries, cherries or chocolate on the top.  On the bottom is a crust of crackers. Today I read the stories about the Maasi and the story about Sydney.

 Well hope you had a fun time reading this.                            

From your friend Olivia and her friends

XO Club Girls

OLPC REPORTS OF THE CONTINUING WORK OF XO LAPTOP PROJECT IN BUNGOMA COUNTY HANDS OF CHARITY

OLPC HOC REPORTS OF WORK COVERERD BUNGOMA COUNTY

 

10-13/03/2012 –

Hands of Charity Organisation  in collaboration with Small Solutions in US have kept touch with children in the village in Bungoma County Kenya supporting the youth and children who could otherwise not be able to receive any computer skills.This has continually gone on now benefiting regular teachers in schools from these rural areas.As Hands of Charity we appeal to support us to reach out more children the rural areas.Thanks to Small Solutions.They need our support.

The learners can find revision materials through XO laptops which is boosting their preparation for National Examinations

Refresher training for volunteers and training of youth out of school on how to use XO laptop technology, we used browse activity to access internet whereby trainees accessed internet in the following fields – maps – Bungoma County, finding more information about Small Solutions and other similar organisations

16-/03/2012

Internet for the youth at school from neighboring schools, browsing to find the updates about HIV/AIDS and risks to HIV transmission.

20/03/2012

            Bukokholo Primary School – For std 7 & 8 – Activity being browse on wiki- junior, solar system. The activity is real attracting the interest of children since they are eager to learn more about planets. At the same time teachers were browsing by the help of cradle point technology on field of diseases, history, tips of essay writing in English where thy got several of them.

With pupils – 3 volunteers and one teacher- laptops in class for pupils – 20 laptops, for teachers – 4 laptops and time taken – 2hrs for every session for pupils – 21/2hrs

22/03/2012

Kibeu primary school – class six – pupils used write activity to learn the keyboard by typing texts, highlight the texts, bolding, italic, underline and font. Pupils were much happy for they can type their names and English words on the computer and change the font of typed text. Towards the end of the session pupils were asked to spell different words from the typed text and do some correction so as to improve English writing as one language skills. 43 pupils, 20 laptops, 3 volunteers, 1 teacher and time taken was 2hrs.

24/03/2012

Butonge primary school – browse activity – std 7 East – 49 pupils. By use of cradle point technology volunteers divided the class in different so that they can access the internet. We connected 5 xo laptops each group with their learners. Mostly we browsed on communicable diseases such as Malaria and updates on math past papers from Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E).

Notes were made by the learners. Time taken was two hrs thirty min, 3 volunteers (Bonventure, Peris, Pascilisa and Lilian)

25/03/2012

Butonge primary school – std 7 – continuation on browse activity wiki-junior solar system. We found out that as learners noticed that there’s a lot on wiki-junior solar system their interest is to get more information on planets. Learners claim that the activity is real supporting them to do better in science as a subject. 16 laptops, 36 pupils and 4 volunteers

26/03/2012 at Bukokholo Primary School.

From 3:00pm – 5:30pm – teachers using cradle point technology, we connected 5 xo laptops for teachers of Bukokholo primary to access internet. Fields accessed are as follows;

1. Epilepsy and its medication
2. Spleen – what causes its deforming
3. Nervous – system and reproductive health
4. History –Kenyahistory and how it was colonized

5 laptops, 6 teachers being trained by two volunteers (Bonventure and Peris)

29/03/2012

            Bukokholo girls – internet – students browsed for a model K.C.S.E papers before, students were shown how to connect the cradle point and how to browse. 3hrs, 15 students, 5 laptops and 3 volunteers (Bonventure, Lilian, Peris ,Pascilisa)

30/03/2012

Kibeu primary school – literacy class – std six. Pupils were asked to write essays about future life and based on punctuation and arrangement of words – this is to improve writing skills in English language. After typing pupils were asked to present and later formed a discussion over the spellings of different words and typing speed as they were told to use both hands instead of one hand. 54 pupils, 20 laptops, 3 volunteers 1 teacher time was 2hrs

2/04/2012 

            Butonge primary school – math program – std 8 pupils were introduced to scratch script within the session pupils were shown how to arrange scratch block so that the script can draw a circle or a pentagon. The activity appeared too tough to kids but volunteers did their best to make sure that learners get some knowledge on the activity. 48 pupils, 3 volunteers, 1 teacher, 20 laptops time 2 1/2hrs

3/04/2012

Sports and games – base level

3/04/2012

Bukokholo primary school – std 7 – HIV/AIDS dialogues. We used chat activity on xo laptop to discuss how     HIV is spread and what causes its spread. From the discussion points like traditional way of circumcision is also contributing in HIV spread and genital mutilation. 46 pupils, 20 laptops, 4 volunteers, 2 teachers 2 1/2hrs

4/03/2012

Butonge primary school – std 8 were given time to explore the xo laptop. They did most of implode activity and found the activity interesting that kids even did not want to give chance to their fellows as it made them concentrate more on computers. Kids were saying let me play the game first.

5/04/2012

Kibeu primary school – as the kids saw OLPC team they made a fun of “what is a computer” meaning that they have known what it means by a computer. As the team entered class to start a computer session, we had pupils who took the computers from the back thinking that they will miss to have a computer. In std six there’s a pupil who is promising to study computer and become an engineer in computer science.

6/04/2012

Butonge primary school – Std 7 West kids used calculate activity to find sums from a mathematical text book for std 7. Pupils were very happy and shouting as they got answers correct by use of xo laptop and this is what they said “I got it mwalimu “so much interesting. At the same time the activity returned the interest of kids on mathematics as a subject. 50 pupils, 20 laptops 3volunteers 1 teacher

8/04/2012

            Bukokholo primary school – teachers used xo laptop and cradle point technology to search the web. Teachers looked for K.C.P.E past papers.

INTERNET SUPPORTING TEACHERS IN THE PROJECT SCHOOLS RIGHT IN RURAL AREAS

Teachers are using the xo laptop technology and the cradle point technology to search the web in different fields to gather information concerning their lessons in school.

Science teachers use the technology to search for solar system, how its arranged and how it was formed. They use the same to find out human nervous system of science books, science model papers etc.

On the same madam Linar Sirari of Bukokholo primary school wanted to know more about epilepsy with the help of the cradle point and xo laptop technology. She went through the causes of the disease and how it can be treated. She went a head to get medication advice from the internet as she noted down every kind of drugs. At the end of the session she was eager to do more on medication of spleen enlargement as she had already went through the cause of spleen problem. It forced her to follow up our destination so that she can do more explanation. She claims to have spleen problem.

Madam Jackline and Stellah both English teachers found tips of essay writing and how to improve grammar in schools.

Teachers for social studies  Mr.Wepukhulu and Namunane explored  the Kenyan History and founders of independence and how it was colonized. Furthermore they used Google maps to find areas and direction – they said Google maps are very important to pupils since in exams questions 1-6 is map reading and if pupils could do more about it they will be familiar to maps and it will real improve their performance.