Richard Wright
Libraries for Lesotho
Fundraising for Computer Aid International
Story
5 March 08 Update: Thank you to everyone who donated -- special thanks to Quire for the fund-raising concert. We're now in Lesotho, and have a better idea of what's needed and where. The huge need at the National University is Internet bandwidth -- they had about 100 student computers and have just acquired 300 more. Those, together with several hundred staff computers, and students with personal laptops, have flooded the Internet access: several hundred computers on a 1 Mb/s line. So no more computers (just now) for the University -- what they need urgently is bandwidth and I'm collecting information on what can be done.
The nearby St Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing trains about 30 nurses per year, on a three or four year programme (many train as a combined nurse/midwife which takes another year). They have a new computer lab with 25 'seats', but only 9 computers. The money you've donated can complete that lab with Computer Aid computers, and so I propose to close the fundraising now, and spend what you've contributed on St Joseph's. It's still funding for computers in nursing education in Lesotho -- but not at the National University itself which has computers but now needs bandwidth.
Thank you all very much. I've posted some information on our trip here, but the bandwidth is stopping me from getting as much online as I'd have liked. What there is, is here: www.bbcarchive.org.uk/lesotho Regards, RIchard
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What to do about HIV and AIDS? A basic answer is education. Lesotho is a beautiful, mountainous country surrounded by South Africa. Since it was enclosed by European-dictated borders a century ago, the population has been unable to access the rich lowlands surrounding Lesotho. The consequence has been gradual depletion of the fragile mountainous land, and consequent erosion.
Lesotho has gone from being an exporter of food, a century ago, to a position where it can only grow about half the food it needs. Lesotho has few exploitable mineral resources, and little industry -- apart from selling its water to South Africa to, arguably, the detriment of its own population's water needs. I have relatives in Lesotho who have standpipe water for two hours per week, when the whole village queues and nobody gets enough. The result is reliance on polluted streams, with consequent diseases.
On top of this, Lesotho like all of Southern Africa has a 30 to 40% HIV incidence -- statistics are not precise. This level of HIV rips the heart out of the adult population, leaving children in the care of grandparents, or -- if they are lucky -- aunts and uncles. My own Lesotho relatives are caring for orphaned children. One is herself a widow and so caring for an orphaned neice and nephew is a huge struggle, especially as it is not only housing and food that have to be arranged, but education.
Thankfully, Lesotho now provides free primary education, but secondary schools still have fees -- and then there is the almost magical hope of trying to get children prepared for and entered into university: the National University of Lesotho.
Despite all this, Lesotho has relatively high adult literacy, including the all-important female literacy (over 70%), and high rates of school attendance (over 90% now that primary schools are free).
The National University of Lesotho would like to train more students, for less money. One straightforward issue is using electronic learning resources (online books and coursework) rather than requiring students to buy textbooks. This approach is part of a general move in university libraries from books on shelves, to 'learning centres' based on electronic resources.
But e-learning needs computers, and the National University of Lesotho (NUL) needs many more computers.
My partner 'Madibuseng and I are going to NUL next January (2008), where 'Madibuseng will help with nursing education (based on her 40 years of experience here in the UK, as a nurse and a lecturer in nursing). Nurses and other trained health workers are essential to all progress in work on preventing HIV transmission, treating the results of AIDS where prevention is too late -- and working with the orphans and families of the victims of AIDS.
I'll do what I can to help the library with learning resources. Probably the biggest thing I can do is arrive with more equipment. A 20-ft container holds 225 computers (refurbished, of good spec, and ready to use at NUL), and £11,500 will pay for the computers and get the container to Lesotho.
I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. I have contact (over several years) with several university libraries in the UK, and with the academic infrastructure programmes that support them. Nothing replaces good teachers, but online resources can replace unaffordable (and often over-priced and out-of-date) textbooks, especially of the sort that I've seen dumped onto the third-world because the developed world knows they're poor quality, dated, and low value-for-money.
Libraries for Lesotho: in addition to the university, I have contacts with local schools, and with a Lesotho organisation that provides adult education centres in rural areas. Some of these computers (where appropriate; many Lesotho primary schools have no electricity) will also be used, loaded up with open-source books, as low-cost bookmobiles to provide access to thousands of books, in rural areas, at very low cost.
So please donate your money to send a container of computers to the soon-to-be Learning Centre of the National University of Lesotho, to lower the cost of university level education -- and increase its quality.
The goal is more health workers where they are needed, but we're starting at the "point of supply": professional training.
Thank you for your consideration and support.
The nearby St Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing trains about 30 nurses per year, on a three or four year programme (many train as a combined nurse/midwife which takes another year). They have a new computer lab with 25 'seats', but only 9 computers. The money you've donated can complete that lab with Computer Aid computers, and so I propose to close the fundraising now, and spend what you've contributed on St Joseph's. It's still funding for computers in nursing education in Lesotho -- but not at the National University itself which has computers but now needs bandwidth.
Thank you all very much. I've posted some information on our trip here, but the bandwidth is stopping me from getting as much online as I'd have liked. What there is, is here: www.bbcarchive.org.uk/lesotho Regards, RIchard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What to do about HIV and AIDS? A basic answer is education. Lesotho is a beautiful, mountainous country surrounded by South Africa. Since it was enclosed by European-dictated borders a century ago, the population has been unable to access the rich lowlands surrounding Lesotho. The consequence has been gradual depletion of the fragile mountainous land, and consequent erosion.
Lesotho has gone from being an exporter of food, a century ago, to a position where it can only grow about half the food it needs. Lesotho has few exploitable mineral resources, and little industry -- apart from selling its water to South Africa to, arguably, the detriment of its own population's water needs. I have relatives in Lesotho who have standpipe water for two hours per week, when the whole village queues and nobody gets enough. The result is reliance on polluted streams, with consequent diseases.
On top of this, Lesotho like all of Southern Africa has a 30 to 40% HIV incidence -- statistics are not precise. This level of HIV rips the heart out of the adult population, leaving children in the care of grandparents, or -- if they are lucky -- aunts and uncles. My own Lesotho relatives are caring for orphaned children. One is herself a widow and so caring for an orphaned neice and nephew is a huge struggle, especially as it is not only housing and food that have to be arranged, but education.
Thankfully, Lesotho now provides free primary education, but secondary schools still have fees -- and then there is the almost magical hope of trying to get children prepared for and entered into university: the National University of Lesotho.
Despite all this, Lesotho has relatively high adult literacy, including the all-important female literacy (over 70%), and high rates of school attendance (over 90% now that primary schools are free).
The National University of Lesotho would like to train more students, for less money. One straightforward issue is using electronic learning resources (online books and coursework) rather than requiring students to buy textbooks. This approach is part of a general move in university libraries from books on shelves, to 'learning centres' based on electronic resources.
But e-learning needs computers, and the National University of Lesotho (NUL) needs many more computers.
My partner 'Madibuseng and I are going to NUL next January (2008), where 'Madibuseng will help with nursing education (based on her 40 years of experience here in the UK, as a nurse and a lecturer in nursing). Nurses and other trained health workers are essential to all progress in work on preventing HIV transmission, treating the results of AIDS where prevention is too late -- and working with the orphans and families of the victims of AIDS.
I'll do what I can to help the library with learning resources. Probably the biggest thing I can do is arrive with more equipment. A 20-ft container holds 225 computers (refurbished, of good spec, and ready to use at NUL), and £11,500 will pay for the computers and get the container to Lesotho.
I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. I have contact (over several years) with several university libraries in the UK, and with the academic infrastructure programmes that support them. Nothing replaces good teachers, but online resources can replace unaffordable (and often over-priced and out-of-date) textbooks, especially of the sort that I've seen dumped onto the third-world because the developed world knows they're poor quality, dated, and low value-for-money.
Libraries for Lesotho: in addition to the university, I have contacts with local schools, and with a Lesotho organisation that provides adult education centres in rural areas. Some of these computers (where appropriate; many Lesotho primary schools have no electricity) will also be used, loaded up with open-source books, as low-cost bookmobiles to provide access to thousands of books, in rural areas, at very low cost.
So please donate your money to send a container of computers to the soon-to-be Learning Centre of the National University of Lesotho, to lower the cost of university level education -- and increase its quality.
The goal is more health workers where they are needed, but we're starting at the "point of supply": professional training.
Thank you for your consideration and support.