One of the joys of running a non-profit organization is connecting with other people with similar missions and passion. Today I want to pay tribute to Dr. Betty Halliwell of Books for Peace (BFP). Sadly Betty passed away this week, but the echoes of her work will continue for years to come.
It’s possible that not everyone’s pulse races when thinking about system testing, but that was the exciting culmination of our weekend here at Reneal IEO. We set up 12 used laptops contributed by generous donors and connected them through a gigabit network switch to a server with Neal’s latest-and-greatest integrated software based around Xubuntu 12.04. This hardware and software is
implementation of the 2013 Reneal IEO projects in Tanzania is still a couple of months away, but the wheels are turning to ensure that everything is ready to go.
I’ve mentioned the UCSAP scholarship program in prior blog posts. However it’s different enough from American scholarship programs to merit a bit more detail: why it was started, what expenses it covers for the students who are its beneficiaries, and how it is administered.
School Year 2013-2014 started yesterday in the Philippines, and as a consequence it’s been an unusually busy week here at Reneal IEO with activity in each of our five mission areas.
Thirty Reneal IEO computers and monitors are now in a cargo ship somewhere in the Atlantic on their way to two secondary schools in Tanzania. This used equipment was purchased from the World Computer Exchange (www.worldcomputerexchange.org), and we requested that one of these machines be shipped to us immediately for pre-trip checkout.
The Reneal IEO trip to Tanzania is coming up in August, with plans to install IT labs at three high schools that were selected following site evaluations in 2012. Each of these IT labs is basically starting from scratch, so significant corporate energy has been expended over the last six months looking for computer hardware and considering how to get it from America to Tanzania.
Like every corporation, Reneal IEO has a board of directors. The corporate by-laws of Reneal IEO require this board to meet at least twice a year. While financial reports and official travel policies and action items don’t have the cachet of a trip abroad, they are an absolutely essential underpinning of our 501(c)(3) corporation. We are fortunate to have very enthusiastic and diligent board
Neal returned to America last Saturday and Reneal IEO has a board meeting next Saturday. Thus it is a good time to pause and reflect on the 2013 Reneal trip to the Philippines. I don’t know if we’ve ever had such a satisfying confluence of events: witnessing the culmination of some long-time projects, implementing significant improvements in others, and laying the foundation for exciting future opportunities. There was great joy in seeing old acquaintances and in forming new connections. Of course nothing truly good comes without some blood, sweat, and tears along the way, but all in all it was a successful trip for Reneal IEO.
Our work at Compostela National High School (CNHS) started back in 2006 when we were assigned as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Even after we completed our Peace Corps service in 2008, we have continued our close association with the school and teachers. On this trip, Neal has been working long hours to upgrade the system at CNHS to Xubuntu 12.04. Xubuntu 12.04 will be the basis for future installations, so this work was an important stepping-stone for Reneal IEO.
