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ordi laurie project
ORDI-LAURIE Project
We are looking for partner organisations that would
be ready to help us develop the
Abéné
It is a village located on the
Its population is composed of different ethnic groups
and religions but they live together in a peaceful atmosphere, combining good
humour and ancestral traditions. The main activities are farming and fishing,
as well as tourism as an emerging sector. However, the youth worries that they
do not receive the same quality of education as delivered in the cities in the
North, particularly
Laurie
Sonko-Marie
Laurie first came to Abéné in 1999 and immediately
created close ties with the people in the village.
At first she combined her
life between
With Malo Sonko, her spouse, she has contributed to
the promotion of traditional West African arts in
Together they founded the education and cultural
exchange centre alna niking! in
their house in Abéné. Students come from
A current project aims to educate children in the
arts, within the school curriculum as well as during the school holidays. They
also wish to extend their activity to theatre and visual arts (batik dyeing,
wood carving, painting).
Ordi-Laurie
Laurie Sonko-Marie has worked in
administrative and clerical positions for 20 years: She therefore brings a
very solid experience in the use of computers and the Internet.
Since settling in Abéné, Laurie has identified a need
from the people in the village and the teachers of the primary school Ecole Alonda
Diabang for computer equipment and education. Thanks to the long-awaited
arrival of electricity in the village, she has been able to offer computer
initiation classes.
She then created “Ordi-Laurie” which, for the first
time, offers classes, typing services and an internet connection in the heart
of the village. This allowed the inhabitants to avoid travelling to the next
village; located 10km away, to read, send emails and use the Internet. The trip
costs 400 CFA but might take half a day if not a whole day, which has
discouraged many people from creating their own email addresses.
They now feel ready to open up to the outside world
and are able to communicate with their friends in Senegal or elsewhere in the
world, particularly with the people they have met when they visited the
village.
The overall reaction is unanimous in saying that
these services contribute in the middle term to the development of the village
and discourage the youth from leaving the village to the cities.
Currently
Until today, Laurie has organised classes for the
following people:
* The teachers at the local primary school
Alonda Diabang, who intend in the future to offer classes to their students, in
particular in the two last classes. Indeed the children are often unable to
access specific schools because they have not received computer education.
* The manager and the secretary of the
Mutuelle of Albadar, a small funding body which contributes to the economic
development of the village of Albadar and its neighbourhood, including Abéné,
through short and medium term loans.
* A young woman who wishes to sit for an exam in farming
management.
* A retired teacher, now farmer and poet, who would like to offer the
same education to his children after he has completed his course.
* Several young people who want to be able to search the Internet
for their studies and to access schools in Ziguinchor or
* Several young entrepreneurs who would like to be « up to
date » in matters of technical progress.
When they reach the end of their course, all students
will receive a certificate with details of the education they have received and
the skills each of them has acquired.
Our project
Ordi-Laurie would like to reach the following
objectives :
1) To set up computer education in the
local primary school Ecole Alonda Diabang d’Abéné for both teachers and schoolchildren.
2) To
offer initiation courses to those who wish to learn basic typing methods and
the use of Internet.
Ideally on points 1 and 2, the education would be
free to benefit the most students and teachers.
3) To
offer a computer at a lower price to all students reaching a certain level
and/or to give them free access to a computer room.
This would allow them to regularly practise, thereby
perfecting their skills and enhancing their education.
Our needs
That is why we are looking for partner organisations
that would be able to help us :
1) Obtain
the equipment needed to achieve this project: computers, printers and all other
computer equipment.
2) Find
the funds to finance computer courses and cover the costs of setting up a
computer room in the village.