Utah State University has written a nice story on our work over here in Rwanda with the XO computers and OLPC.  Thanks for helping to get the message spread in the U.S. about Ungana Foundation's mission and goals.  

Alyssa Callister

President

Ungana Foundation

Ungana Making News

It's always terrific to read some nice publicity about our work here in Rwanda!  Thanks for helping get the word out that we are partnered with wonderful organizations doing  great work.

...Yet among the most exciting of endeavors is a joint-venture between Université Libre de Kigali (ULK) and the Ungana Foundation, based in Gisenyi....

Alyssa Callister

President

Ungana Foundation

It was the day for all the pomp and circumstance.

Today we hosted a formal event, designed to give parents, district and city officials, and school administrators a look at the wonderful opportunities that are coming their way.

The event – highly publicized and attended by several popular leaders, including Senator Balinda, who is also the founder of the Independent University of Kigali (ULK) – was covered by Rwanda Television, and showed the country some of the things that ULK and The UNGANA Foundation are doing to enable progress.

We got the chance to showcase some of the XO laptop activities that the children at the E.P.GI Primary School have been working on over the last couple of weeks, and it was honestly amazing to hear the reaction of the crowd when one of our students logged onto her XO, opened the Web browser, and searched for images of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame. She then wowed them with her ability to copy an image to the clipboard and paste it in a text document, then write a sentence about the President.

That’s after two weeks of having the XO for one hour per day.

This is a perfect example of the limitless opportunities that come as a result of the XOs. The kick-off event began a process that – with the guidance of The UNGANA Foundation, the teachers, school officials, and the entire community – has the ability to transform these children’s education.

Power into the hands of those that crave it.

Coy Whittier
Communications Associate
The UNGANA Foundation

Combine These Pictures...

Beautiful Rwandese children...

A

 Community Center...

and Lots of little, green powerhouse XO computers

What do you get?   The most fabulous launch and expo of the Ungana and OLPCorps partnership.  We kicked off the training of students in Gisenyi, Rwanda on the mighty XO computers with an exhibition for leaders in the community.  

The children presented wonderful performances and showed off the skills they had already learned in the short time they have been in use.  It was a truly remarkable day with presentations from Rwandan officials, performances by children, speeches and demonstrations...more details to come in further posts, but for now I want to send a huge thank you to our dear students in Gisenyi!

Alyssa Callister

President

Ungana Foundation

Our Colleagues

The Little XO Computer That Could... in the Congo

The deployment in Goma (Congo) is coming along as well.  Although many officials and members of the media are excited for the project, it has been a wild two weeks in Goma.  

This week, President Kabila arrived in Goma and will be here for two weeks.  Kabila is the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo and it has been quite the spectacle.  Kabila is rarely in Goma and the streets are lined with thousands of soldiers armed with AKs and rocket launchers.  June 30 was the Independence Day in Congo and these soldiers were in formation as a part of a parade and celebration on the streets of Goma. 

 Despite the hectic environment, the planning for the deployment has been going quite well.  A classroom is available at the district offices and the Education Privet (Director of Education in Goma) along with UNHCR is helping with a choice of the initial primary school. 

The Ungana Foundation and students from the University of Kinshasa (involved in OLPC Corps) have extensive plans for the deployment including the children designing their own schoolhouse on the XO computers that will then be constructed by the Ungana Foundation.

Alyssa Callister

President

The Ungana Foundation