Development project in Africa -- More Information

[Jason Keeney]

I am an international volunteer at the Institute for International Cooperation and Development (IICD - www.iicd-volunteer.org ). I am interested in starting a project in sub-Saharan Africa teaching people about Free and Open Source Software.  I would also like to teach people how to use a linux or BSD system.  I am testing several distributions for ease of use in a learning environment and would like to test your distribution.  I would like to know how I might be able to have a free copy of the latest stable version of your distribution shipped to me or how I could get a desktop or laptop computer preinstalled with your distribution donated to me.
 
First of all, IICD, where I'm currently training to be a Development Instructor, is located in Williamstown, MA, USA.  We are trained to work on projects in Sub-Saharan Africa for Humana People to People (www.humana.org).  I just started my training period at the beginning of August and will be going to Angola.  I'm leaving in February and will be there for 6 months.  There are several projects that are currently running in Angola, but I haven't been given my specific assignment yet.  All I know is that I'll be working at one of their DNS schools.  (I'm not sure what DNS stands for....it's a Danish acronym--Humana is a Danish NGO)  The DNS schools are teacher training colleges.
 
There are already programs at the DNS schools to educate students on the basics of computer use.  Most of them will never have used a computer before.  I'm going to try to focus on teaching how to use office applications, web browsers, and email clients.  Therefor, any machine that I might get donated would be used as a "home desktop" computer.
 
We have some training software that runs on all of the boxes here at IICD that can only be used on windows.  So I hope to acquire a total of 4-5 desktops or laptops to use as testbeds to run various distributions of linux or BSD.  I can then decide which will be the best to use for teaching others.  If I can get more than 4-5 machines, I would like to have them shipped to where I'll be in Angola.  I am also going to be on the road fundraising for the months of October and November (or however long it takes me to raise $6,000 by canvasing)  so it would be nice to have at least one laptop.  I hope to be done with the testing stage by then, but I would still need time to come up with a 6 month curriculum.
 
I've used several distirbutions of linux in the last 2 years (Mandrake, Red Hat, Gentoo, Slackware, and Arch) and already have begun making an outline of what I hope to acheive, but I want to know what system I'll be able to work on with my students before I make a detailed curriculum.
 
Any donations could be shipped to me at:
 
Jason Keeney
1117 Hancock Rd
Williamstown, MA 01267
USA
 
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Thank you,
Jason Keeney

		
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