Empowering the children of the Premametta School in Bodhgaya, India

It’s an immense pleasure to work with the children of the Premametta School in Bodhgaya, India. It is very rewarding to be able to help someone that needs your help. These children are very curious, very intelligent and very happy and they learn incredibly fast.
When I brought the first computers I got very surprised. In a few days they were already showing me where to find the things that I was looking for. When you are teaching them something, there are at least five other children paying attention because they also want to learn. And they are very generous. They teach each other all the time, when someone does not know something or is in any kind of difficulty.
The girls started with some shyness, but here in India, this is how things are. But I am focused on showing the girls that they are as smart as anyone else, that they are not less intelligent than the boys; that the girls can do the same things that the boys do in the computer. They just need to show that they are interested and we give them the opportunity to try. I prompt them to do and try all the time. They all have classes with a teacher one hour per day and during their break they can all go and play with the computers. My next goal is to get some donations to be able to install Wi-Fi, then they will be able to surf the internet. I feel that they will go very far when we do have internet access. After only a few months I feel that the girls are already a lot more confident that than when they started and this makes me immensely happy. Their confidence is going to grow even more when they are able to surf the net and discover a bit more about the world out there.
A few months ago, through the World Pulse website, I met an African woman who is very proud of her country – The Democratic Republic of Congo and I asked her if she needed my help. It’s not easy for me to get funds for the school here in India and I depend mostly on donations from friends. Therefore, financially I can’t help her. But I have a travel blog for the past five years where I tell stories about my trips and where I also talk about the school here in India, and as the blog is my most important tool to get the funds for the school here, I made a blog for her, and we’re building it little by little, step by step. I already helped her find some funds to buy a digital camera so she can take pictures that show the work that she is doing with her school and her children. And the same company that donated me the laptops is already shipping some laptops to her. Africa and India united, working together and this connection was possible through the World Pulse website
In a very short time I hope that my children will be able to exchange messages and talking using Skype with each other.
And that is my mission – to empower the girls of the Premametta School through the use of technology. And I feel that it will happen much faster than I ever imagined it would.