> I arrived in the US three (3) years ago. I was born and brought up in Kenya, Eastern Africa, where the national language is Kiswahili. My first language is Kikuyu. The medium of instruction in Kenya school curriculum is English and emphasis is put on Kiswahili in all grades.
> I exceled very well in my Kiswahili High School final exam. Between 1989 and 1996, I was hired by Kenya\’s Teachers Commission to teach Kiswahili in High School. Alongside that, I\’ve kept my abreast by reading Kiswahili publications by renowned Authors and I am confident that I can be an asset to you Organization if given a chance to work with you.
> My Cellphone Number is 424….
——————————–
> Well, I can try to see what I can do. But before I start looking for
> contacts, please try to provide me with the following information,
> detailed as possible:
Hello Olga,
thanks for the good questions. I will answer some of them below. But before we start I’d like to mention that I’ve already done a lot of work in this area and need you to continue. So my plan would be, once you confirm that you are interested, is to send you the entire package so that you can resume where I left off before this big translation project began and why I am too busy now to continue it. Lots of people to communicate with.
Also, you will need to get the Web Expressions working. My work is all through the internet and my operations are web based, so the website will need to be developed. So I hope you will succeed with its installation.
> 1. Give me estimated number of items you need to get – i.e. 5 solar
> pannels, 5 laptops etc.
I am not so concerned about getting donations as setting things up to start. The donations will come later. I want everything to be as set up as possible by the time I go down there in May next year. If this project continues I am perfectly prepared to fund the first village myself. It will serve as a template for others.
2. I need to know precise geographic locations. Names of countries, villages and, actually, all reasons why you think these particular places are suitable for the project. The reason is that it’s usually easier to ask for money with known quantity of needed items and with clear names of people/places one is asked to benefit.
Based on my correspondence so far, right now I am leaning towards Mombasa area in Kenya, and already have contacts in neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania. Can spread out from there.
3. Also I want to know if to present you as individual Karel Kosman (I think in this case it makes sense), or Kenax Translation Services etc. May-be for this purpose it will be good if you opened a mailing account on your kenax server, i.e. something like [email protected]. It seems more reliable than getting an e-mail form some gmail or yahoo server.
Don’t need another email address and I can present myself as a combination of the two above. One of the ways I can send them work is through translations. And if not concerning their own language, then perhaps between French and English. And any goodwill or advertising to my agency will certain not hurt.
4. Do you have any record of participating in any charity or voluntary work elsewhere? Especially if could be checked and particularly if recommendations could be provided. This is important type of information one could ask for to verify your reliability.
I can verify this myself if I actually do find some donors.
> 5. Do you have experience teaching (others than yourself)? Again,
> particularly one that can be verified.
I don’t see why I need to prove this. Personally I think that all this can be done through the internet and I won’t necessarily need to go down there – but I want to go down there. I can upload somewhere the entire package while others can download to their computer, install it all, and follow my instructions. Just like I am training all the PMs and translators etc. on these various projects. I type very quickly and it has worked all these years, so no reason why the entire African continent or even the entire world could download my instructions and start working.
6. How do you accept donations? Is it items by mail, or monetary donations to PayPal, or bank account? This information, I think, should also be placed on the website clearly and separately form the rest, under “How can you help” link.
It IS placed on the internet, and should be very clear. Please check again.
7. Can you provide any proof to where money goes? For example, you could make another section of your website, where there will be a list of necessary items and what is already received/bought, so that people could have a feeling of “control” over where does their money go.
This has also been clearly explained on the website. If you want to take on this project I suggest you read the entire website thoroughly.
> 8. Had you already contacted anyone (organizations) about this?
I will send all this once you are prepared to begin. I also want your heart to be in this and not just some job. So please convince me of this.
Okay, over to you.
Karel
The more precise information you give me – better. And the more checkable the information is – even better than that. I would also propose you to place a short but clear resume and autobiography. On the website links can be found quite lot, but I think that in this case a clear, short and reliable presentation of information is important. If you give me details, I could also write this type of content (might need to be reviewed by native English speaker). People want to know satisfactory quantity of information about the person to whom they give their money or even old computer. Well, something like that. I might need more information as we go. Regards, Olga
> — On Mon, 3/22/10, KENAX – Karel
> Subject: Re: Belize – additional info
> Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 9:59 PM
Hello Olga, well, my plan so far is that I would go there myself next Mayish and teach them myself. But I have taught everything I know on the computer myself, so I cannot believe that others cannot do the same. I would provide every computer with all the skills to learn, and I would set up the computers so only certain wise people have the administrator account, without which no one could install games on it. I’ve thought about it extensively. And certainly since I can find work through the internet then I can teach others to do the same. Now I just need someone who is interested in helping me move this forward… Thank you, Karel
Hello Karel, Whow!!! That I was not expecting. The project is indeed interesting. And yes, electricity is the key for progress, I agree. It increases productivity by allowing work or studies being conducted after darkness. It also makes streets safer. But I think that computer can be of any use only accompanied with a qualified person in the village, who would take over the keeping\maintaining and teaching process. I don’t believe that vilagers can aquire commercial computer skills. For two reasons. First – studying is a skill, which is usually absent from undeveloped societies, not because they can’t, but because the chance to develop it is not being provided to them. Second – unless there is a school, where the teacher had seen computers before there will be no one to teach them for a long term. And independent learning is even a more rare skill than just learning. But I do believe, that being exposed to language training programs may-be some particularly intelligent kids could acquire basic English skills. And it could rise their chances to get jobs in local centers. But not via internet. By the way, in most countries in South America there is already internet in almost every village. And what do you think, any of the kids, who spend all their day in the internet shops use it for studying? No! For playing “Doom” style games, and internet – not for information but for chats. And they speak no English at all. Other example – here, in Nepal, my friends and I had been teaching one Tibetan monk, very learned young man, how to use computer for several month. Half year later he learned how to open files, use Word and Internet, but still can’t go anywhere beyond that. So with African kids it will be even harder. To summarize – I find it an interesting project, but the computer in every village part I think is not very realistic. For schools in local centers it could be a big help, though. Regards, Olga
> > — On Mon, 3/22/10, KENAX – Karel
> > Subject: Re: Belize – additional info
> > Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 8:13 PM
Hello Olga, okay, concerning PM hunt, do as you think is best. Thank you for the translator synopsis. Just curious, would you be interested in managing the following project for me? http://africa-charity-project.org/