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Hands together [2014-11-21]

The Reneal IEO corporate logo, designed by Michael Martinez (son of board member Sharon Fingold), features many hands reaching together toward a computer monitor.  Those hands to us represent many things: most obviously of course the students and teachers we serve, but also the generous donors that make Reneal IEO projects possible.  But one other wonderfully satisfying experience has been the development of our teams in the Philippines and Tanzania who work with us to install and maintain the Reneal IEO computer labs.  I am so pleased to report that in Tanzania the collaboration agreement with Reneal IEO, Arusha Node Marie, Habari Node Ltd, and the Arusha District Council has been signed.  This will aid us greatly in providing “on the ground” support throughout the year to schools in Arusha with the Reneal IEO system.

Arusha Node Marie (ANM) provides free internet service and training opportunities to about twenty schools in the Arusha area.  Their work thus brings them in frequent contact with schools and teachers.  The challenge for ANM though is they do not have the resources to provide computers to schools.  Reneal IEO is in the business of creating new computer labs, but we are only in-country for a small fraction of the year, which means on-going maintenance and support historically has been done from afar.  Habari Node Ltd is an ISP in Arusha with extensive professional expertise along with a passion to give back to the community.  And the schools overseen by the Arusha District Council are the real winners in this collaboration.  Through the guidance of the Arusha District Council, we can all identify schools with the needed infrastructure and personnel to make a computer lab a success.  It is a WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN for our four organizations, and we are thrilled to be a part of the partnership.

As this partnership in Tanzania emerges, the excitement grows to reunite with Reneal IEO Team Philippines in January.  We had a Skype call with our intern Jade on Monday to discuss our draft schedule.  Jade is teaching now at Cebu Technological University (he is the youngest professor there!), and he will be helping to identify some students who can do their OJT with Reneal IEO.  Boxes shipped in September have been arriving at the 2015 schools, including the computers received from FreeGeek.  We’ll procure some items there in Cebu, such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and Ethernet cable that are too heavy to ship, but by and large we should be able to hit the ground running when we arrive in early January.

Project Year 2014 thus closes with great happiness – not only are ten new schools served by the Reneal IEO system, but we also have fantastic teams that we are working with both in the Philippines and Tanzania to sustain these labs.  Project Year 2015 looks equally promising!