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"This project we are proposing is in a very rural part of morocco. We have videos and design info that is on its way to us from there via donkey, and messenger to closest village 4 hours away to be uploaded from a memory key to us from a student who says he is savvy with this technology. We have 6 students from Montana state university there helping us with a restoration project of a similar nature and two instructors. They are reachable by phone sporadically and we have only a couple more shots at communicating before we submit the material." -Todd Smith, United States |
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"Several of our members, from Westmount Charter School, Calgary, Canada recently travelled to Ecuador for an 18-day Humanitarian aid trip, focusing on social and environmental action work. One of the locations visited was on the outskirts of the city of Manta, situated on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Here group members worked with locals to build a fence around a small school, and discussed with the locals about a potential computer lab that they would like to see implemented for their school. Thus, our project for the Open Architecture Challenge 2009 is based on designing a modular computer lab for an un-zoned area in the outskirts of Manta." -8th Graders, Westmount Charter School, Canada |
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"The Cambodia Project Inc. (CPI), a not-for-profit organization with the mission to bring high quality secondary education to under-served children in rural Cambodia. The comprehensive, inter-disciplinary and participatory approach of our project is our biggest strength in promoting bio-innovations for poverty alleviation through education. During the Khmer Rouge, the education system in Cambodia suffered tragically and the academic infrastructure and professional culture were destroyed. Current figures indicate that only 30% of total children and 22% of girls are enrolled in secondary school in Cambodia." -Sreeja Nair, United States |
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"Our school partner is a primary school that consists of 6 grades (1 – 6) with students varying from 6 – 13 years old. Every grade has only one classroom consist of 19 – 35 students. There are 187 students and 11 teachers (including headmaster) whom some of them perform some administrative tasks. The school building area is about 408,2 m2 while the land area is about 700 m2. There is only one room to share for the headmaster and teachers, 6 classrooms, broken toilet, storage, and narrow yard to play in. There are no other buildings nor rooms. The students come from modest families (if we don’t want to say that they are poor) who live nearby. This school is located in a border part from an elite housing complex and they would be moved to any place because of on this school’s site, one gigantic modern shopping centre would be build." -Krispitoyo Dreyer, Indonesia |
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"IDEAs for Change” refers to the American Individuals with Disabilities Act. The students on the team chose this name because they believe that it is time to change the way in which we approach not only special education, but also mainstream education. There are almost 500 students at The Gateway School of Environmental Research and Technology, an urban public high school. It is one of eight high schools residing in a single building located in the South Bronx section of New York City, the poorest congressional district in the United States of America. (Kozol, 1995.) The students are inner-city high school students. They are all minority: African American, Caribbean Hispanic, Indian Sub-Continent, and African. Most of them hope to be the first person to graduate from high school in their family and hopefully attend, and graduate from, college. About quarter of them have been classified as special education students and another twenty-five percent are English Language Learners (ELL). Many more are not at grade level or have yet to be diagnosed as special education students. Their difficult situations make them feel isolated even though many are enduring similar situations." -Keri Rodgers, United States |
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"Our team is composed of three architects, two women - Martina and Soňa and a man - Petr (me ;). Originally we met couple of years ago at the university, as we were studying the same course together. In late winter this year, we met again in Nepal, where Martina and I were staying for couple of months as volunteers. There we met (among many others) the principal of a lower secondary school Mr. Kamal Bikram Lama. After having spent some time in the school talking to teachers, students and of course the principal himself, we could feel all problems, the school was facing and finally decided to help them. The school is situated in the hilly region of central Nepal where snow caps of the Himalayan range can be seen (it is even quite near to Mt. Everest, however outside the tourist routes) in a region called Kavre some 85km east from Kathmandu. However it is not very far from the capital of Nepal, the way there is so bad, that it takes 7-8 hours by bus and additional 1,5 hours walk to reach the school. That´s probably the main reason, why the region is not supported by Nepali government at all. Nobody seems to care about those people..." -Petr Kostner, Nepal |
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"The Partner is the school system in the Republic of Malawi in sub Sahara Africa. Due to the difficulty of direct communication with the rural villages that the project is intended to support, the African Children's Mission, a group at a local church (and associated with the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) has agreed to act as surrogates in helping to communicate the needs of the people of Malawi. The School Type will typically consist of a one-room school, since, it is intended as a prototype for the small, rural villages of Malawi. Effective natural environmental systems are essential, as many of these villages function without the benefit of electric power, wired communications, or other centralized utility systems. Much of the teaching currently occurs in open-air gatherings. As the need for safe and durable shelter is significant, it is intended that the classroom should also be able to serve as a village clinic." -Drexel University Student, United States (46 students took part) |
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"The Concerned for Working Children (CWC) a secular, democratic, national, private development agency is one of the first organisations in India to work exclusively on the issue of child rights. CWC directly reached 57,200 school going children, 1600 working children, 500 youth, 19,000 adults and 2500 members of migrant families. They form our grass root constituency and are from the most marginalised communities and excluded from decisions making processes. -Ashly Tom, India |
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"My school is Miami Northwestern Senior High. We are located at 1100 NW 71 Street Miami 33150. The school is in the heart of Miami's inner city. We are currently a "D" school and working intensely to improve learning scores. We have approximately 2700 students, primarily African-American with some Haitian and Hispanic students. We are home to 2 magnets - visual and performing arts and a medical magnet. I teach visual arts in both the magnet and fine art programs." -Ruth Harris, United States |
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We are a not for profit organisation working in India (Gujarat state)
since last 8 years. Our focus is on integrated rural development for the
underprivileged section of society.We work for education and have started seasonal hostels and support schools in the desert area of Kutch (Gujarat, India). Illiteracy is the main problem of the area and hence we run around 57 seasonal hostels and 38 support schools for the children of salt workers who migrate for salt production in desert for nearly 8 months. Its a very harsh condition in the rainfed region and that too in desert for working in salt pans. -Rajesh Kapoor, India |
