Camara, UCDVO Gros Morne

Camara, UCDVO commit to new Haiti project

Life
A pupil at Jesus and Mary School in Gros Morne Haiti

14 April 2015

Social enterprise Camara and UCD Volunteers Overseas have signed a memorandum of understanding to install low-energy solar powered computer labs in Haiti.

The partnership began last year where the two organisatoins collaborated on a first solar-powered computer lab in Gros Morne. Solar has provided a sustainable solution for schools to access ICT education in Gros Morne, a town in the north of the country with a population of just over 7,000.

This year, Camara and UCDVO are planning to provide a low-energy networked lab to reduce the cost of the solar installation while still providing increased access to education.

The lab is designed as a virtual environment using Raspberry Pi single-board PCs as thin clients with low-energy monitors and servers that have been specifically designed for use with solar energy.

The labs will use Camara’s Edubuntu literacy and numeracy skill-building content, delivered in Creole, French, and English.

UCDVO is already actively engaged in community development projects in the Gros Morne area of Haiti, and as part of this project are providing a team of 25 volunteers to train teachers and conduct research on the community and educational impact of solar systems.

Camara’s partnership with UCDVO – now in its fifth year – is expanding its remit beyond IT equipment to address the problem of ensuring adequate electricity is delivered to schools. Using solar technology addresses this problem in an environmentally friendly manner.

To date, Camara has supplied 90,000 computers to schools and trained over 16,000 teachers around the world. It addition to operations in Haiti and Ireland, it operates ‘education hubs’ in Africa Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Lesotho.

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