Hello Everyone, and welcome back to Friends of Pakati!
What we are discussing today is our key targets for the immediate future. These revolve around the two main issues arising from our most successful visit to the schools so far, in October, when we delivered 20 PC’s plus monitors, keyboards, mice, multi-plugs, & all relevant cables.
To find out more what we did, please visit these links to previous coverage:
https://friendsofpakati.com/2024/10/13/delivered/& https://friendsofpakati.com/2024/11/01/pakati-2024-podcast-3//
The two important issues to come from the donations are:
1) Power, and
2) Wi-fi
Power
The issue with power is down to the supply of electricity to the school buildings, at both Pakati schools.
Currently, there is very limited power from the solar supply due to the age of most of the equipment at the Secondary school, and to replace it would cost US$1000’s, although the batteries are relatively new. There is power for the teachers’ houses on both sites from the national supplier, ZESA, but that does not connect to the main school buildings themselves at either school yet.
Recently I was informed the, in order to use the new computers in the IT Suite at the Secondary school took some lengths of extension cables, to run the power from one of the teachers houses to the Suite.
According to a local electrician, to connect the buildings will cost US$500 for each school, so that is our first target.
Wi-fi
The donation of enough computers to have an IT teacher allocated to each school means they will be in a position to learn more than just the installed free Open Office applications, and they need access to the internet to really get the full benefit from the new IT.
There are many ways the internet can help their education (at both schools) with things like lesson planning for the teachers, research for staff and students, meeting the curriculum requirements set by the government’s Ministry of Education, not to mention being linked to the rest of the world!
The most likely source of Wi-Fi is via Starlink, with a few options available. There are 2 levels of kit, the Mini, and the Standard. There are 2 ways of acquiring the kits, one direct from Starlink & one though a local approved dealer, then there are also 2 levels of speed to subscribe to at different monthly rates.
So the most likely set up for both schools individually is as follows:
Standard Kit, via the approved local dealer, at 300Mbps with unlimited data. The total for each school would be US$539 to set up + US$50 per month subscription.
The schools have both said they can manage the monthly subscription of US£50
This will be our second target.
With internet access, the schools may be able to raise by offering use of the computers, IT lessons & access to wifi to the local community
TOTALS:
Power for both Pakati schools. US$1000 – £785
Wi-fi installation at both schools. US$1078 – £846
———–
Total to raise: US£2078 – £1631
(These figures are at current exchange rates as of 08/11/2024 from http://www.xe.com)
Friends of Pakati will obviously be looking to raise as much money as possible in the coming weeks and months, well into 2025.
We are looking for any ideas for fundraising, for donations, for sponsorship – please let us know! Best ways to contact us is by email friendsofpakati@gmail.com or DM at http://www.X.com/friendsofpakati or IM at http://www.facebook.com/friendsofpakati
Any donations can be made to http://paypal.me/friendsofpakati or http://gofundme.com/friends-of-pakati
In the near future…
● Our end-of-year review for 2024
● A podcast to look ahead to 2025
● New school year at both Pakati schools
3 thoughts on “Our Next Targets for Pakati Schools”