Laptops for Dhanushkodi: The Trip - Day Three

Teaching children at Yagappa School

On our final day in Rameshwaram we came back to the big school to teach the children hand on with the laptops. We taught the same things but only on a much grader scale as we taught 16 kids at a time.

Setting up laptops

We finally made our way back to the train station late that night.

Meeting local fishermen

Laptops for Dhanushkodi : The Trip - Day One & Two

I have just returned from my trip to India. It was an amazing experience helping all the children in Rameshwaram learn about computers, and by doing so, give them a small insight into our world.

This is the first school that we visited.

The first day in Rameshwaram was the most action packed. We arrived by train at 4 am and rested for another three hours at aunt Malli’s house. We then took off to the first school with our laptops in hand. We took on the biggest school first.The school was Kamarajar School, and for the first day we just gave a short presentation to introduce ourselves and explain what we were going to do. For the time we spent there we met over 100 children and told them what we were going to be doing over the coming days, that is over 100 in a school of over 2000 children.

Introducing ourselves to the children.

Later, that same day we went to a second school, only to learn that it was closed. We also visited many local politicians and told them what we were doing, to get approval for future projects from the townspeople.

The school's principal.

On the second day there were massive blackouts through out the town so we had to hold off on our plans for that day. Luckily the third school, Yagappa Community School still had power left. We took in groups of eight kids at a time, and taught them, individually, how to navigate the Windows Explorer, and taught them the basics of typing on Microsoft Word.

Me teaching some kids from the third school.

One of the most surprising things I found during our teaching sessions was the enthusiasm of the children. Unlike in America where going to school feels like a chore at times, here the kids were eager to learn and were really smart despite being in such poor conditions.

Laptops for Dhanushkodi: Installing Programs

By going through the laptops, I realized that one of the three I previously thought was functional, isnt.

I will bring the broken laptops as well as the working laptops to India. The broken ones can usually get fixed by the local Indian IT people, who are experts at fixing up old computers.

For Dhanushkodi, I am formulating a plan for the 3 days I will be spending there. I am going to retool my presentation from my last visit, and show it again. After that I will go ahead and start teaching the villagers how to use the basic functions of Windows.

Some programs I have installed in all of the working machines, that I will be instructing on are:

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Mozilla Firefox

Apple iTunes

While these may seem basic, this is more than most of the villagers have seen so far in the computer world.

stay tuned for updates...

Laptops for Dhanushkodi: A New Project

I am working on a new project to provide the people in Dhanushkodi laptops and computers so they can learn about this modern day tool we take for granted, but that they have never even seen or heard of.

I came up with this idea all the way back in May when my dad told me we were going to go to India for a little while at the end of August. I sent emails, asking for laptop donations, out in June to a couple of relatives and family friends.

Over the next month and a half I managed to come up with five laptops, two with some major hardware issues that I hope to get fixed in India.

Right now I am working on cleaning up the three laptops that are in good condition. I have to format them so that they do not contain any personal data, and then reinstall the Operating Systems so they can be used clean.

Pictures From The Trip

Leaving for Rameshwaram, India



At Dr. Mallika's House


Small port at Dhanushkodi, thats fish on the ground that they are drying

Me and Karthik, my cousin, passing out bags to the children

Thank You, To All The Donors and Supporters

Thanks, to all the individuals and families who help out in our effort to help the village of Danushkodi, you really made a HUGE difference.

Donors:

Ms. Mekala Selvam
Mr. Jodi Yarmush
The Bhupen Patel Family
The Kannan Family
Mr. Prem Balachandar
Ms. Ira Roy
The Bergamotto Family
The Heffley Family
The Feinberg Family
Mr Anil Vijayan
The Prem Patel Family
The Rastogi Family
Mr. Ravi Chiplunker
Mr. Mahesh Narayan