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Christmas fun [2014-12-26]

Whenever we finish an installation of a computer system at a school, we ask the school head and IT teacher to sign a document acknowledging receipt of the equipment and affirming that the lab will be used for the education of students and teachers.  The document includes an itemized list of the equipment, all the way down to the cable clips that hold the wiring in place.  Yesterday being Christmas, I was sitting around trying to fit this list of equipment to build a Reneal IEO computer lab into the tune for “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.  It turns out the required quantities really don’t match the song at all, but it was fun nonetheless!

     Twelve hundred excited students

     11 USB mice

     10 cable clamps

     9 AVRs  [automatic voltage regulators]

     8 gigs of RAM

     7 laptop computers

     6 power strips

     5 training sessions

     4 keyboards

     3 network switches

     2 UPSs  [uninterruptible power supplies]

     And 1 server in a school lab

Costs and needs vary some between the Philippines and Tanzania, and from school to school within each country, but all told Reneal IEO typically purchases between $1100 and $1200 of equipment per school lab.  For our 2015 Philippines projects, here are the main items that must be purchased for each school and approximate costs:

          Server computer:   $600

          UPS:  $140

          Network switches: $135

          USB mice (17):  $60

          Power strips:  $50

          Ethernet cable and connectors:  $70

          Miscellaneous hardware (screws, cable clips, cable clamps, etc.):  $25

One other critical element of our work is receiving donations of used computers and monitors that we can use as “clients”.  Even if these computers are older, by connecting them to the powerful server computer they can have new life as high performance units for students and teachers.  Thanks to generous donors, we have been able to ship a large quantity of used, donated equipment to the Philippines for the 2015 projects: 16 laptops, 58 desktops, 50 monitors, and 40 keyboards!  We make many of our purchases in-country – Cebu has several excellent computer stores – but in addition to the donated client computers we also must ship some of the specialized purchased equipment that can only be obtained in the US.  Total Reneal IEO shipping costs for the 2015 Philippines projects have been approximately $2000 in support of six schools (an average of $330 per school).  Monetary donations to Reneal IEO help to fund the equipment purchases and shipping costs to make these IT labs possible.

This all came a long way from a Christmas song and it may not seem like “Christmas fun”, but I will say this:  after all of the preparation and packing and planning, it will be indescribably thrilling to watch these hundreds of pieces come together in the hands of Team Philippines and the school IT teachers!  We look forward to reporting the progress as the 2015 projects unfold beginning in January!