Laptops in Africa

from Liz Uible
A friend just sent me this article from Yesterday's New York Times about buying computers for African school children. For $400 you get a laptop for a child and one for you! (Sounds like it might be great if all you need is the internet!)
Here's the link to the actual article, also copied below.


Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free

By STEVE LOHR
One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world’s children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile. The early reviews have been glowing, and mass production is set to start next month.

Orders, however, are slow. “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written,” said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the nonprofit project. “And yes, it has been a disappointment.”

But Mr. Negroponte, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, views the problem as a temporary one in the long-term pursuit of using technology as a new channel of learning and self-expression for children worldwide.

And he is reaching out to the public to try to give the laptop campaign a boost. The marketing program, to be announced today, is called “Give 1 Get 1,” in which Americans and Canadians can buy two laptops for $399.

One of the machines will be given to a child in a developing nation, and the other one will be shipped to the purchaser by Christmas. The donated computer is a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The program will run for two weeks, with orders accepted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26.

Just what Americans will do with the slender green-and-white laptops is uncertain. Some people may donate them to local schools or youth organizations, said Walter Bender, president of the laptop project, while others will keep them for their own family or their own use.

The machines have high-resolution screens, cameras and peer-to-peer technology so the laptops can communicate wirelessly with one another. The machine runs on free, open source software. “Everything in the machine is open to the hacker, so people can poke at it, change it and make it their own,” said Mr. Bender, a computer researcher. “Part of what we’re doing here is broadening the community of users, broadening the base of ideas and contributions, and that will be tremendously valuable.”

The machine, called the XO Laptop, was not engineered with affluent children in mind. It was intended to be inexpensive, with costs eventually approaching $100 a machine, and sturdy enough to withstand harsh conditions in rural villages. It is also extremely energy efficient, with power consumption that is 10 percent or less of a conventional laptop computer.

Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried.

So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive. The focus-group subjects liked the fact that the machine was intended specifically for children, and appreciated features like the machine-to-machine wireless communication. “Completely beastly” was the verdict of one boy. Another environmentally conscious youngster noted that the laptop “prevents global warming.”

Still, the “Give 1 Get 1” initiative is mainly about the giving. “The real reason is to get this thing started,” Mr. Negroponte said.

He said that if, for example, donations reached $40 million, that would mean 100,000 laptops could be distributed free in the developing world. The idea, he said, would be to give perhaps 5,000 machines to 20 countries to try out and get started.

“It could trigger a lot of things,” Mr. Negroponte said.

Late last year, Mr. Negroponte said he had hoped for orders for three million laptops, but those pledges have fallen short. Orders of a million each from populous Nigeria and Brazil did not materialize.

Still, the project has had successes. Peru, for example, will buy and distribute 250,000 of the laptops over the next year — many of them allocated for remote rural areas. Mexico and Uruguay, Mr. Negroponte noted, have made firm commitments. In a sponsorship program, the government of Italy has agreed to purchase 50,000 laptops for distribution in Ethiopia.

Each country will have different ideas about how to use the machines. Alan Kay, a computer researcher and adviser to the laptop project, said he expects one popular use will be to load textbooks at 25 cents or so each on the laptops, which has a high-resolution screen for easy reading.

“It’s probably going to be mundane in the early stages,” said Mr. Kay, who heads a nonprofit education group, whose learning software will be on the XO Laptop. “I’m an optimist that this will eventually work out,” Mr. Kay said.

July Rwanda Trip Repcap

Hi Friends,

Please join us for this call Thursday, August 16th. Feel free to pass this on to others!

RWANDA and it's OPPORTUNITIES, conference call Thursday Aug 16,
Call In number: (605) 990-0700 code 14-24-20#

12-Noon Pacific, 3 pm Eastern, 9 pm South Africa

Are you interested in investment opportunities with big returns? Are you interested in charitable opportunities? Just curious about why we have been to this tiny East African country (where 49% of the Parliament is female) twice in the last 4 months?

We’ve had so many people wanting answers, that we’re scheduling an open call for next Thursday. You’re welcome to join us and invite any interested friends, male or female.

Join this call if you are curious about…
… Joining our October trip, and/or
… Real Estate Opportunities,
… Business Opportunities,
… Or Charitable activities

We will cover

1.The trip successes-

• Discovering AMAZING business opportunities, and joint venture partners – both government and private sector
  
• Training government leaders, and entrepreneurs (Television coverage)
• Seeing our micro-lending recipients in action! – village women being trained in business skills
• Social events with access to fantastic people

2. Construction boom opportunities

• Housing Development opportunities
• Training of Women in Construction Trades – on site (Requested by Government)
• Real Estate Regulatory Training
• Other RE, buy, hold, flip with local partners or without

3. Business opportunities

• Quarry investment
• Brick making factory
• Training Center for Women Entrepreneurs (Women in Parliament Partners)
• Training in Customer Service
• Our retreat center (Combine with Training Center possible)
• Real Estate Agency – cater to Expats
• Restaurants, and all service industries

4. Travel, adventure and Charity Opportunities

• Trips, 3 prong – Access, passion, & menu of opportunities (incl adventure &/or charity)

5. Opportunities for assistance or partnership

• Partnership opportunities in various business and real estate ventures
• Volunteers knowledgeable and able to teach US Real Estate Regulatory Systems (This will help us as investors)
• Someone to spearhead funding for Training in various areas incl women in construction trades (Probably from funding sources such as USAID, Commerce Dept, State Dept, or worldwide non-profits)
• Partners for housing projects, knowledgeable in infrastructure including sewers, utilities, streets, and construction project management, with creative minds.
• Referrals to Women in Construction, both tradeswomen and construction company owners

We look forward to your questions and input on Thursday Aug 16,
Call In number: (605) 990-0700 code 142420#
12-Noon Pacific, 3 pm Eastern, 9 pm South Africa

Join this call if you are curious about…
… Business Opportunities,
… Real Estate Opportunities,
… Joining our October trip,
… Or Charitable activities

Training Women Business Owners

From Liz Uible

Christine and I just got home from Rwanda this week. In Kigali, the capital, we taught an entrepreneur's workshop with about 50 participants in addition to working with female senators, ministers and other leaders in a separate workshop. (if you've missed it, you can learn more about our trip, and Rwanda in other blog posts.)

In the workshop, one of the things that impressed me was the universal feeling of business owners around the world seem to get when building their business. We can get so caught up in obstacles and road blocks that it is hard to see past them in any kind of constructive way. We can just sit in that problem for days or weeks and allow it to drain the life away from us and our businesses.

The power is in focusing on the solution and goal rather than sitting in the problem. We taught the entrepreneurs in the workshop some simple formulas for getting their head out of the problem and into the solution. (In fact, I was surprised at how quickly they took to the Mastermind concept and have already started implementing it. )

This is going to be our major focus on the Member call Tuesday. Overcome Obstacles and Keep Focus on the Solution: Strategies for changing your focus and growing your business.

I thought you might enjoy some photos of us working with the
business owners in Rwanda. Besides Christine Harvey and
me, Madeleine Nichols, Connie Kadansky, and Christina Willings helped teach these women about our experiences as business owners and how to grow their businesses even faster.

How a Coffee Bean Gets into Your Cup

from Liz Uible

On Monday I visited the other micro-lending facility we are working with in Rwanda. They are just rolling out a micro-lending program for the women coffee farmers who want to make money in the off season.

Evidently in some places, like Congo, coffee grows all year long and has several harvests. In Rwanda, there is only one harvest due to less rainfall. To compensate, Rwanda generally produces a higher value bean… the kind in Starbucks rather than Folgers.

In the off season, things like school fees are due and the children want to eat. So the cooperative is encouraging women to start cottage-industry businesses- crafts, sewing, etc.

The WomenforWealth.com Foundation granted some seed money to start their program and they are now putting together the training to make sure the loans are used appropriately (see post from yesterday).






(above- demonstrating the foot peddle sewing machine at the electric-free washing station)

Since we have spent so much time with the women leaders of Rwanda and also with successful entrepreneurs this trip, I am even more clear how important micro-lending can be. It gets down to what locals call “grass roots people.” The really poor who are smart, but have no hand up in the world. I will connect the COOPAC co-op people with the organizations we know who are doing micro-lending training so that they have a baseline to begin from.

While I was visiting Coopac, I was reminded how amazing a cup of coffee is.

Who thought to take this berry,

sort the bad out,





pull off the pulp,




wash it,





wash it again,







dry it,







sort it again,




pull off the hull, roast it and then grind the pit into little bits and pour hot water on top?????

How does one happen upon such an idea, anyway?
That is a lot of steps to get your java and is mostly done by hand at the washing station.

And then, to celebrate and impress visitors, the COOPAC dance troop dances. And the singers sing.

You can see some of it live from when another group went (they are very proud to be on Youtube.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VKHl5C6bzkw

Micro-Lending Training

From Liz Uible

One can not give a credit line to a high school student who has no
financial experience and expect her to use it wisely with no training.
In the same way, you can not give a $100 business loan to a woman
in a village in Rwanda without training her on how to run a
business and take care of money. The one week training is to
teach her that the loan is to grow her business and the profit is
to pay living expenses. Not the other way around.

On Tuesday, we went to see the training for micro-lending that Dr.
Immaculee has created. She has this very dynamic man who
knows everyone’s name and gets really excited. He seems
interesting to learn from. The trainings are done in Kinyarwanda,
the local language. (In Rwanda they also speak French and English,
but only the well educated.)

Liz Uible with Rwandan Women in Training

Christine Harvey with future micro loan recipients

We were invited for the second day of the 20-person training
sponsored by the WomenforWealth.com Foundation for Micro-lending.
These are twenty mostly HIV positive women who, when they are
done with the training and present a verbal business plan, will get
a small loan to start a business. The loans will be under $100.
We met each participant and shook hands. There was a woman
with a small child who she entertained as she took in the lessons.
We communicated mostly with our eyes.

The instructor talks to them as a large group and then they break up
and do work in 3-4 small groups to do assignments. Tuesday morning
they were talking about their expectations of what they would
learn and what that new knowledge would help bring them. One
person from each group would write the verbal ideas on flip chart
paper and then they shared them as a group.

One of the great things about that format is that is promotes
reconciliation among women whose communities were torn apart
by genocide just 14 years ago.

Madeleine Nichols holds hands with women at training

I was really impressed. I discovered a bias I held about the
illiterate of the world. Maybe it comes from elementary school
when by third grade the children who didn’t know how to read or
write yet were labeled ‘slow’ –and really did seem that way. I
did not know I had that bias until I met these women and was
truly surprised by their intelligence and self-confidence. We talked
to them about how excited we are for their futures, and they
made speeches right back to us with confidence and ability! It
was truly remarkable.

A woman from the Village gives a speech of thanks (with translator)

And then at the end, with a sense of love and fun, we danced.
And that was the best of all.

Dancing with the Micro Lending training participants

A group photo: Dr Immaculee is in the blue suit in the centerand
Christina Willings, who filmed the whole, is in black

Rwanda and It's Opportunities

Hi Friends,

It’s Monday morning here in Rwanda, 5:30 am. Liz Uible and I are out here with an investment team of five, looking at possibilities. Our highlight was running 4 days of seminars on business skills with the Women of Parliament, followed by training of 40 high level entrepreneurs, which has helped us gauge the level of expertise and to meet potential partners.

Here’s a summary of activities including Micro-Lending, Real Estate Potential, interest from outsiders, other opportunities including quarries and venture capitol, and access to decision makers.

MICRO LENDING
Liz just left with the driver for a day at Lake Kivu, to visit our Micro Lending coffee co-op recipients, who will use the small loans for the women to start businesses between the coffee harvest seasons. Madeleine Nichols and I will see the US Ambassador at 10 am to brief him on our trainings with the women in Parliament and the 2 day conference we ran for women entrepreneurs. Tomorrow we’ll all get to meet the recipients of the Micro Loans to HIV women, through Dr Immaculee. They are starting their 5 day training on how to start up business. Many are illiterate, but they are required to present a profit and loss plan – verbally, if not in writing. They are also taught simple math and reading during the training, as well as nutrition and how to open a bank account.

The part I admire is that Dr. Immaculee has set the loans up in such a way that they have support groups of 10 women amongst themselves – rather like our mastermind groups, except that in addition they are required to co-sign for each other in order to get the loan. That means that during the training, they have to come to know and trust each other and also assess whether each member of their circle has learned enough to be qualified to receive the loan. The initial challenge is that some don’t understand the concept of a loan and it’s repayment, and think at first that it might be a grant or gift. In her program, Dr Immaculee explains the concept of profit, and that they are free to spend their profit on school clothes for the children, but the loan itself must be used for the business.

REAL ESTATE
I had dinner last night with Dr. Immaculee and her husband Sandrali. He’s a well know architect here, having designed the genocide memorial, as well as public and private buildings. We drove around the city first to see his architecture, then eat at a new Chinese restaurant near our rented home in the prestigious Kiovu area, near the American Embassy. One of the houses he built is about 7000 square feet and is along a beautiful curving road along a river, across from a park and lake. I’d not seen this on my last trip, and the curving street and gorgeous flowers made me think I was in Philadelphia for a moment. I asked the prices of houses there, and they run $700 per square meter. Since a meter is longer than a yard, a quick mathematical conversion comes up with $70 per quare foot. That still makes a 5000 square foot house cost close about $350,000. (I previously had a conversion error here, but 350,000 is the correct price.) Of course as you come down the scale in neighborhoods, the cost per square foot drops. A high end home, in a different area with nice views can be built for $500 per square foot.

Housing here for medium and low end is in demand. Yesterday we went out with staff from the Mayor of Kigali’s office to see the new area being built which incorporates low, medium and high end homes. There will be 5000 new homes when complete.

The low end homes have 2 bedrooms, a living room. The whole home measuring about 15 feet by 15 feet. That makes each bedroom about 7 feet by 7 feet, but I might be exaggerating on the high side. Each home has a cement slab of about 15 ft by 7 feet connecting it to an out building housing a toilet room, and shower room and a kitchen. The kitchen measuring about 5 feet by 5 feet. Each home will have a wooden fence separating it from it’s neighbor, which stands about 8 feet away from each other. The people who will be housed here will be relocated from the slum areas of the capitol, which is about 6 miles away.

At first the people were upset about being re-housed, but the city has worked long and hard they tell us to be sensitive to the needs. They are letting groups of neighbors move together and still be neighbors. They are also forming co-operatives so that the new housing area can also provide livelihood opportunities. The beauty of the newness and view compares favorably to the slum homes, so folks think it will work.

The interesting part for me was the location and the clustering of the housing. The site they chose is on a hill, and one of the most beautiful views of the city. Secondly, the low cost housing is situated such that it circles the hill along the lower rim. Directly above it will be medium cost housing in the $30,000 plus range, and above it will be the high end homes on the hill top. We asked questions about the clustering, whether schools would be integrated, what they anticipated from the social mix, and obviously they had thought it through thoroughly.

INTEREST IN RWANDA FROM OUTSIDERS
There seems to be a lot of faith in Rwanda now. The Americans are building a huge regional Embassy here, the Christian Family network is building a state of the art broadcasting center with a 300 seat auditorium on the hilltop (also designed by Sandrali,) the Chinese are in here building roads and infrastructure, the Swiss President was visiting last week – and it seems that a head of state has been here every month in 2007 which is an escalation of interest. We’ve met may expats living here and they all seem quite happy. They report a shortage of some goods by our standards, but fresh food is not a problem.

I met an American who is the head of the major hospital and he says that the President wants him to pull out every stop to make it a first class facility. The President, and the Parliament which is 49% female, pounce on corruption at every turn, and the streets are reported by many to be among the safest in the world.

OTHER INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Several investment projects have caught our attention. One is housing development, including roads and infrastructure. Another are a quarries. Another is Venture Capitol. If you have expertise in these areas and would like to start a dialogue with us, send us an email. Or you can call me on my cell phone here. My number is 011-250-0878-9774. Remember please that Noon in Los Angeles is 9 pm here. So best to call before Noon LA time or 3pm Eastern. We’re leaving Thursday, so call us asap if you have specific questions, or email me at ChristineHarvey@WomenForWealth.com.

ACCESS TO DECISION MAKERS
One of the delights in working here is the access to people that we’ve created. We’ve gone out of our way to host dinner parties here at our rented home, to throw parties and to have informal get togethers. Decision makers are still keen to get to know foreign investors and the government has made attempts to make it attractive. Investor bringing in over $250,000 do so tax free we are told. There are agencies who help with ‘one stop shopping’ for foreign investors, answering all questions and facilitating the process.

People on all levels are a delight to work with. Their negotiation skills are good too. The cleaning lady we hired for example, had negotiation skills that would make even David Finkel of Maui Millionaires proud. The private party we hired the car from were the same. So, as you see, entrepreneurship is ripe here! Every event you attend here is full of decision makers. Reverend Rick Warren was here from Saddleback Church and The Purpose Driven Life, and the room was teeming with government and business leaders keen to make Rwanda everything it can be. The same is true at every turn.

Before closing I want to give thanks to our investment team who accompanied us here – Madeleine Nichols of New York – attorney and real estate investor, Christina Willings of Canada – award winning film producer, Connie Kadansky of Phoenix AZ – sales and business trainer, of course Liz Uible, Co-Founder of WomenForWealth.com, business woman and real estate investor, and then there is me, Christine Harvey of Tucson AZ, real estate investor, author, business trainer and business woman.

I hope this gives you a feel for life here, the opportunity here and the fun we’ve had exploring the country and the people! We feel we’ve made some life long friends, and have been moved to new levels of global and human understanding.


Much love,
Chrisitne Harvey
Co-Founder, WomenForWealth.com