Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9601151926.A7601-0100000@sparc> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 19:16:36 -0400 From: Mike Gurstein <mailto:mgurst@SPARC.UCCB.NS.CA> Subject: Ghana: Internet Connectivity/Training Workshops for Yng Adults To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 10:36:33 -0500 From:mailto:an402307@anon.penet.fi To: Multiple recipients of list <mailto:africana-l@warthog.cc.wm.edu> Subject: Ghana: Internet Connectivity/Training Workshops for Yng Adults. (Sorry, our News Server is down...had to post this using ANON.PENET service) . . . . .
FROM: INTERNET CONNECTIVITY/COMPUTER LITERACY PROJECT OF GHANA
====================================================================
Hello!
...Any help you might be able to offer on behalf of the African Computer Literacy Project would be very much appreciated!
Beyond the technical aspect of establishing **Internet Connectivity** in Ghana (see the UPDATE ON CONNECTIVITY below), there is a great need to find used computers/ peripherals/ office equipment (all types, as listed below). Of course, receipts will be issued for donations, for tax purposes.
The African "Computer & Internet Training Workshops" provide an innovative approach to addressing problems of enormous consequences in areas ranging from community development to rural health care to wildlife management to reforestation.
===================plz cut & help us disseminate=====================
Co-Sponsor: Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc., NY, NY IRS Classification: Non-Profit / 501(C)3
RE: Computer Literacy Project / Computer & Internet Training Workshops; Under the auspices of the Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana (VOLU); and under the direction of Dr. Osei DARKWA, University of Illinois-Chicago
Perhaps you have some personal equipment that works but that you are no longer using, or perhaps your school, organization or business does, and would welcome a tax deduction.
We are requesting your help with this important effort to find "previously owned" computers, peripherals, office equipment, etc., for an educational project in Africa that is in dire need.
Young African students are **EAGER** to learn about computers...about the Internet...about information systems...and want to be able to improve their lives in whatever way possible by the much-lauded "free flow" of information via the Internet - but have virtually NO opportunity for any of this.
The "Computer & Internet Training Workshops" - open to all without charge - are the key components of an educational program recently launched in Ghana aiming to help bridge a ghastly ever-widening gap in computer and Internet utilization between African and Western nations. It will give these young Africans early hands-on training and exposure through workshops and classes that are open to all.
This project has been undertaken by The Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana (VOLU) - a self-help organization with a 40-year record of Herculean accomplishment at the grassroots level throughout Ghana. VOLU programs run the gamut, from building and providing personnel for medical clinics and schools, to doing wildlife conservation and reforestation.
The Computer Literacy Project is one of VOLU's most ambitious undertakings ever. It is a "first" of its kind in Africa.
The need for equipment is GREAT....and without it, this very innovative project will be doomed.
====================================================================
E Q U I P M E N T N E E D E D : XT-compatibles, 286's, 386's and up, lap tops, desk tops, **Multi-Media systems**, modems, peripherals, monitors, software, printers, hard drives, other computer-related equipment, as well as A P P L E S and M A C 'S; general business, home and game software/ CDs; office equipment (fax machines, electric typewriters), etc. - all are needed.
Equipment in reasonably good condition can definitely be put to immediate use, but older models and equipment in need of repair, would also be most WELCOME !!
====================================================================
W H E R E T O S E N D C O N T R I B U T I O N S :
HARDWARE\SOFTWARE\SUPPORT FUNDS
If equipment donations cannot be sent directly Accra, Ghana, then please send equipment to the US collection point, which is the office of Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc., in New York (address below), this project's US co-sponsor, to be taken to the VOLU office in Accra by Crossroads volunteers going to Ghana to work.
Francis DONKOR National Director Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana (VOLU, an NGO) PO Box 1540 Accra, Ghana West Africa
Tel: 233-21-663486 FAX: 233-21-665960 Telex: 3033 VOLU
H O M E P I C K U P
Services that will pick up your parcel at your home or office and deliver it to the door of the VOLU office in Accra, GHANA, or to the Operation Crossroads office in Manhattan, include:
DHL 800-225-5345 UPS 800-782-7892 800-742-5877 Federal Express 800-643-0225 800-238-5355
Save your shipping receipts for your tax purposes
S H I P P I N G A S S I S T A N C E :
Contact Dr. Osei DARKWA for help with shipping, if necessary E-Mail: mailto:darkwa@tigger.cc.uic.edu Office: (312) 996-8508
*******************************
T H E A L T E R N A T I V E
Please send equipment and/or donations to the US sponsor in New York:
LaVerne BROWN Director Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc. A Private/Non-Profit Organization ** IRS Classification: Non-Profit / 501(C)3 **
475 Riverside Drive New York, NY 10115-0050
Tel: 212-870-2106 FAX: 212-870-2055
Crossroads volunteers who periodically go to Ghana to work will take the equipment and donations with them to VOLU in Ghana.
===============================================================
Please write or E-Mail to Dr. Osei DARKWA (E-Mail address below) if more information is needed either about this project, about shipping (i.e., if you are encountering cost problems), or about the collection effort in the US under sponsorship of Operation Crossroads.
We would really enjoy hearing from you.
Peace to all for this New Year!
Cecil
***********************************
Cecil WASHINGTON University of California
Former Director Operation Crossroads Africa, Inc.
Address: 3697-1/2 Platt Ave. Lynwood, CA 90262-3641
Fax/Msg: (310)632-1582
E-Mail: mailto:crw486@aol.com mailto:crw@loop.com
****************************************
FYI: Information on the Internet on Operation Crossroads Africa is at...
gopher://gopher.adp.wisc.edu:70/11/.browse/.METAASPSA/.ASPSA03/
=============================================================
FOR MORE INFORMATION...OR FOR HELP WITH SHIPPING
The Director and US representative from Ghana for the VOLU Computer Literacy Project is Dr. Osei Darkwa, on the faculty at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
E-Mail: (Dr. Osei mailto:Darkwa)darkwa@tigger.cc.uic.edu
Office number: (312) 996-8508.
Home number: (708) 848-7054
Dr. Darkwa's Address: 621 S. Maple Oak Park, IL 60304
Please direct your questions by E-Mail to Dr. Darkwa and cc: a copy to me. Your ideas and suggestions would be MOST WELCOME! Please help us increase our effectiveness in tapping possible sources of equipment at the level of both individual donors and organizational/business donors.
*************************************
UPDATE ON CONNECTIVITY IN GHANA:
I.
Gideon Hayford Chonia (University Of Zurich; mailto:GhanaNet)k042240@rzu.unizh.ch mailto:gideon@osagyefo.ghana.net, writes:
A project Ghana SchoolNET has been initiated with the Ghana Education Service
To have more insight of this project, browse through our WEB:
http://rzunextbet1.unizh.ch/index.html/
We have sent enough computers to Ghana from here and we are building a computing center at Kokomlemle, where repairs and courses will be given.
We are networking 50 School together by the end of March 1996 as a pilot installation to E-mail system only.
Full Internet access will be by the end of the year.....
We are still buying the neccessary networking equipments to connect to NCS in Ghana.
I just sent 18 SUNSParc 1+ unix computers for our Academic Computing Center.
***********************************
II.
Bill (Wilfred Owen, mailto:Jr.)wowen@reston.aau.org, writes:
Things are moving fast in Ghana and there could be a 128kps VSAT uplink in Accra as early as April - funded by the African Internet Forum (IBRD, UNDP, CIDA, USAID and others): implication: full connectivity in rural Ghana at subsidized rates - at least where there is a digital automatic exchange and decent outside plant. [After 10 days of data transmission here, I am worried about the very slow transmission rates. US Embassy asked me to inquire about amplified drop line to the "info store."(?). Unfortunately, Ghana Telecom here is just not yet familiar with data transmission.] So Ghana in June 1996 may be a bit different than Ghana today and computer fever will be spreading by then. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Sorry, our News Server is down...had to post this using ANON.PENET service)
--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--***ATTENTION*** Your e-mail reply to this message WILL be *automatically* ANONYMIZED. Please, report inappropriate use to mailto:abuse@anon.penet.fi For information (incl. non-anon reply) write to mailto:help@anon.penet.fi If you have any problems, address them to mailto:admin@anon.penet.fi