September « 2012 « Hackers For Charity

I’m proud to announce the answer to our number one most asked questions, “What can I do to help?”

Announcing the HFC Volunteer Network , which is also linked from our front page. Charities can use this site to express need, donors can list equipment they are willing to donate and volunteers can sign up and get connected to charity’s needs and equipment that might help to fulfill those needs.

This system will broker the connections without us getting in the middle and slowing things down.

Right now, we especially need charities to sign up but also of course volunteers.

Thanks for your patience and support. Let’s get to work doing some good!

All proceeds to HFC thanks to “cwcsecurity”. Check it out!

Please help us find charities in need of tech help. My last call went unanswered. I find it impossible to believe there are no charities in need!

Please reach out as quickly as you can. I need solid responses in the next couple days.

If you support or care about a local charity or have seen them in action, try reaching out and seeing if they have a specific need then send them our way. Even if you plan on tackling it yourself, fill out the form, especially if the work is bigger than one person.

Follow the link to register a charity!

Thanks!

I spent a lot of hours in the past few days preparing for our first leather training class. I created a document that showed photographs and instructions for every single step. I wanted to make sure that if my words were not clear, the pictures might speak for themselves. It was a great first class. Of the five that we invited, three (Patrick, Aisha and Mme Sulaimani) were able to come. The other two were sick and had gone to the village to try to recover with relatives.

We are starting with basic unadorned iPhone sleeves.

Today we covered the ground rules of the program and worked through one step of the process: a simple double-strand whip stitch.

Jess Rich was on hand for the lesson and was kind enough to donate the Sunday school classroom to hold the classes. Jen was also a big help keeping me on track and on time and explaining things in different ways to help students understand.

All of the students did much better than I expected, and Mrs Sulaimani did most of her work one-handed with her baby in her lap!

I’m planning on bringing lots of cases to Derbycon to sell, and also a few samples to get votes on cases that everyone seems to like the best.

I’m really excited about this program. It’s completely non-technical and I’m finding that I have to use the other side of my brain more than I’m used to, but I’m really enjoying it and I think we found a niche, a trade that’s viable and isn’t over-saturated.

I’m also excited that this isn’t the end of the Loko program. Rebuilding those homes after the fire was an amazing thing, but it didn’t exactly provide a clear way forward for the residents that didn’t have jobs.

Keep tuned, there’s more to come. :-)

I met the folks at Jinja Connection a few years ago and I really admired the work they were doing because they were working with “Street Kids” and that’s no easy job. Living in one of the poorest places on the planet is one thing. Living on the streets in one of the poorest places on the planet is quite another. The mission of Jinja Connection is to, “reach the street children in Jinja, Uganda who are eager to learn, whether they are in an existing organizations or are living on the streets and villages in Jinja.” The key phrase that strikes me is, “eager to learn”. When the organizers of Jinja Connection sought my advice about a small computer lab to help teach their kids computer skills, I found it hard to give them advice because what I really wanted to do was give them their own computers loaded with training software to help give their kids a head start. And that’s exactly what we did.

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After a long bout of malaria, I’m finally vertical. This was a really rough bout. So I started pretty slow. Yesterday morning I pulled together the final details for a new microcenter (details soon), worked on a few iPhones, repaired a laptop for this amazing organization (read the blog.. just amazing..) did some Mac training for Frank Gardner, an amazing man working in Uganda and Southern Sudan whose become like a second grandfather to me and.. other stuff. I also spent some of my “horizontal” recovery time working on a wallpaper for one of our new (old) initiatives we’re getting ready to rekindle. I’m on a short break for a couple of days, so if I don’t post, don’t worry. =)

This classroom finally came together, and we were thrilled with the result. The room was AMAZING. It was well laid out, weatherproof, and pretty secure. We’re thinking of tiling the floors to keep down the dust, but other than that, the room is ready to roll. We’ve got one nComputing system with 6 19″ Widescreen monitors and a full install of RACHEL alongside GCF computer training software. Two lucky kids got a hands-on sneak preview, and Sheila (shown in the green shirt) had never even touched a computer before. The students return from break on Monday. We can’t wait to see their reaction! Enjoy the phots and thanks for your support in making this possible!

We’re in need of someone with video post-production experience. We have about 20 minutes of video (shot from two cameras) we’d like to turn into a trailer. I’d like to use the video for DerbyCon, which means we have a turnaround of about 2 weeks. Since the footage is huge, I would need to FedEx the video from Uganda. It’s too big for me to upload. Please respond with a shipping address if this is something you’d like to tackle for us.Thanks!

We need some help from a graphic designer. We do a new shirt for every con and with derbycon approaching, we are in need of a new design. If you have immediate availability please let us know. The turnaround on this is fairly tight.

Regular readers may remember the computer system we installed for Children of Grace. I had high hopes for this installation. It survived a year and looked brand new. However, I was disappointed that I hadn’t heard anything from COG since the installation. I assumed the systems weren’t being used. When I ran into co-founder Mike McCoy, he informed me that the systems were being used.. a LOT. He agreed to send me some photos and a blurb. His wife MaryAnn McCoy responded with this amazing story. This made the effort SO worthwhile.

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Last January, the Uganda Minister of Education and Sports announced that all students enrolled in Senior 5 and Senior 6 are required to take computer classes or sub math to graduate from high school.

Now this doesn’t seem like such a big deal in the US as most all students are proficient in computers by elementary age.  However, in Uganda, this is a totally different story. Very few students are given the opportunity to even touch a computer let alone sit in a working computer lab learning what a computer has to offer.

Thanks to Hackers for Charity, Children of Grace enrolled 12 of our most promising students in a holiday computer program that taught the basics of Microsoft Office. In addition to the basics, they discovered the many Rachael Programs that had been downloaded by Hackers to enrich their math and science education. This software has not only improved the student’s test scores but has helped students become the top performers in their class.

One young man, Umaru, a Senior 5 student, had never touched a computer until he enrolled in the Children of Grace holiday program. Umaru, a very bright hardworking student, strives to become a civil engineer. He failed his first term computer class because of no hands on experience. There are often eight students assigned to one computer and usually one student commands the computer and others stand and watch. In addition, because teachers have not been trained in computers, the computer classes are highly structured not allowing the students to venture out on their own.

After enrolling in first term computer classes at Children of Grace, Umaru’s end of term computer results advanced from an F to an A. With the addition of that score, Umaru now ranks as the top student in his class of 212 students. In addition to learning computers, Umaru now qualifies for a bursary that will pay all of his tuition and boarding fees.

We, at Children of Grace, are very proud of Umaru. We are also very thankful to Hackers for Charity. With their contribution of a network server, five terminals, keyboards, headsets and software, Hackers is not only giving our students the opportunity to excel in computers but is also giving students the computer skills they will need to compete in our global world.