Similarly, we had events like this one last year, and the year before last in Kabul, Gardez, Jalalabad and Laghman. 300+ volunteers have registered themselves in the blood donation database, developed and maintained by YIAA, and are ready to donate at any time as needed.

I had a live interview about this event on Lemar TV today. It was my first ever live TV show, in deed, it was a very good experience. I talked about the Blood Donation Campaign and other events we (YIAA)  had organized in the last two years.

Youth in Action Association is working hard to strengthen the sense of responsibility in youth and  their role in bringing prosperity to Afghanistan.

“The Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan presented its newly revised Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 2005. Since the creation of BPHS in 2003, the MoPH has seen many positives changes in the health system. Most notable has been the expansion of access to BPHS service to 77% of the population.”  This is what the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan claims.

It is true that there has been positive changes in the health system, which MoPH defines as “many” however, I am not sure if “only one female doctor in a whole province” is many or nothing at all. It has been more than five years since the BPHS is revised and still the most simple medical cases are referred to neighbor countries.

The Afghan Health System sucks be it the public or private sector, and in comparison the private sector sucks the most. Millions of dollars are spent yearly on health tourism to India, Pakistan and Tajikistan and even Iran. And this costs our economy a huge amount. This is a big deal for a country which relies on foreign aid and has no economy of its own (as of now).

This is a very brief introduction to the Afghan health system, I will write about different issues in the mentioned system in the coming future..

We cannot stop the destruction of the environment by simply talking about it and organizing a few social events, truly there are many who use renewable energy and many who have stopped using plastic materials, and these are good things to do but these small things doesn’t change the course of the world.

The way we can make a change is to be very very serious about it and start a global movement which stands for what they think, we have to demonstrate to the governments like the French do, we have to tell them that we won’t stop until they take this matter seriously.

They have to make electric cars, make renewable energy the only source, and we all together have to change at once and not step by step.

After using it for a few days I think it is an excellent tool for making interactive educational activities, it is easy to learn and it is fun. The good thing is that the user has option of choosing and the activity proceeds according to the options given/chosen by the user. Voice/Video can be recorded and used in the activity.

Right now, a Household Hygiene Management Activity is being made and once the initial version is finished I am thinking of making more health related activities such as, Oral Health Care, Nutrition guide and Maternity guide. I will provide a download link for Household Hygiene Management Activity as soon as the initial version is published.

Sustainable Working Human Power as you use the XO!

Just this morning we tested the first prototype – the PAIWASTOON team that perform the technical implementation designed a new pedal powered machine that can power the XO as you pedal and use it at the same time. Even small kids (3/4th grade) can power it.

XO laptop pedal power generator

By taking the Freeplay hand crank and connecting it to the feet which can more easily provide power it should make it much easier to deploy the laptop to countryside / rural areas. As the laptop charges as you use it no additional battery is needed. Photos / full specs will be published on the OLPC Afghanistan website. We are hoping to make this sustainably for XO / other power purposes in Afghanistan employing more Afghan staff. This should work fine with XO 1.5 as well!

Wireless Mesh Backbone System using Freifunk

To make deployment simpler we have adopted the OpenWRT Freifunk router firmware. Each classroom contains two routers; one to provide connections to the laptops the other to mesh with the other classrooms and make a backbone. Instead of having to do cabling; just one box is put on the wall. It should also make it easier to extend the network outside the gates of the school.

XO digital library index

New Simple Digital Library Index

As content is the key we need a way to simply deliver as much content as possible in environments without connectivity. Simple Digital Library Index automatically builds indexes from just dumping files into a folder (extracts the subject, title, description, thumbnail etc) from various formats and generates plain old HTML pages and a Javascript search system. No MySQL, PHP etc. needed.

The file contents can be simply copied and dumped into a web accessible directory. A master index is generated as an XML file. We see that being turned into a package management style activity where kids can ‘checkout’ books from the library

Monitoring and Evaluation survey under review for release

As we previously announced we were undertaking significant research to determine the educational / other impact of OLPC in the coming 1-2 weeks we should finish the evaluation; the impact

Right now 2,500 laptops are distributed to grades 4,5 and 6 in Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad. Now that we have a baseline system to work to deliver content libraries in limited connectivity environments (e.g. 64kbps connections or delivery on a stick) we are building the library to include more educational website copies that run offline (created through our previously released webdump based on httrack) and more curriculum / extra-curricular content.

The system connects the Freeplay hand crank with pedals underneath to enable the XO to be used as long as desired at home, into the night, etc; and it requires no additional or backup battery.

The human power system was designed by OLPC Afghanistan’s deployment technician Akmal Waak and Mike Dawson.  We hope that this will make XO deployment in the many areas beyond the power grid more effective.

The next prototype will be built to be smaller to be carried around and simply placed on the floor with rubber pads.

You can watch the demonstration of this machine in this video. Full specifications / diagrams will be published through the OLPC Wiki as soon as possible.

An event was organized in Washington, D.C. by OLPC. Among the guests were Senator John McCain, Afghan ambassador to the U.S and Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.

McCain said opening the flow of information and knowledge into these countries through the deployment of XO laptops would be a positive step towards stabilization. He acknowledged knowing that OLPC has had problems, but said that “this little device” is already making a big difference.

In Afghanistan 2500 laptops are deployed successfully and 2500 are on the way to be deployed. ‘Afghanistan needs 3,000,000 laptops to cover all the schools’  says the Minister of Education Mr. Farooq Wardak.  The approximate cost of these laptops (including the cost of deployment) are 780 million USD, and it is said that the United States allocated a budget of 173 billion USD for the year 2009 for the war in Afghanistan.

Looking at the facts; I don’t think it is a difficult decision for the U.S. Government to take, I mean it is the best way to help Afghan education. It is simple, reasonable and very effective.

read more:

John McCain endorses OLPC to fight insurgencies
Haqqani urges US not to walk away from region again
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has commissioned impact evaluation …….

‘I would have never come here to get flour if the inflation rate was not as high. The price hike this year has made it difficult for us to feed our large families and the government does not seem to care. Every day I stand in long queues to purchase atta (flour) at Rs10 per kg, but return home empty-handed. Today, when I heard that free flour was being distributed by someone, I immediately rushed to try my luck here as well,’ said Amina, a maid at a government school in Lyari.

‘As soon as I reached out to get a bag of flour, two women jumped on my back and I fell down. The crowd stepped on me and I couldn’t breathe for a while and then fell unconscious. My neighbour brought me to the hospital.’

Amina added that although this is her yearly routine, the turnout of women in bachat bazaars is much more this Ramazan. ‘I don’t just have my family to feed but that of my sisters as well who are widows and live with me. I visit these bachat bazaars every year to buy essentials at subsidised rates and end up making a lot of friends as I stand in a queue.’

Since men are away from home during the day, it is mostly women who end up spending most of their day outside utility stores. When asked if she would think of heading to a free ration stall after Monday’s episode, Amina said: ‘Yes I will. It is the woman’s responsibility to look after the family. And I will do anything to feed my children,
even if I have to risk my life.’

The activity is developed using HTML, it is really simple to access using any browser.

The children using these XO laptops are being assessed to see the impact of this activity on their life, and see whether this activity provides enough information to 1. decrease the incidence of common diseases (providing information about prevention of the diseases) 2. stop malpractices which are common around Afghanistan 3. decrease the amount of resources spent on medical facilities (provide information on how to treat some simple and common diseases at home).

The Children were assessed before they were provided with the XO laptops, they are being assessed right after they have the laptops, and they will be assessed later after they have spent some time with the laptops.

The activity can be downloaded from OLPC Afghanistan website, and the results of the assessments will be published there.

Is the dream really over?

The OLPC team here thinks their hard work was not for nothing and they believe this project will be a milestone in Afghanistan’s history.

You can watch an informative video about OLPC Afghanistan here.