On June 24th, Powering Potential Inc. (PPI) was pleased to host a Lunch and Learn event, via Zoom. The event was moderated by PPI board member Laszlo Schneider. The panel included Janice Lathen, PPI’s Founding Director and President; Mr. Sabasaba Moshingi, Treasurer of PPI’s partner organization in Tanzania, the Potential Enhancement Foundation (PEF), and Eng. Albin Mathias, PEF’s Executive Director.
PPI is celebrating happily its 15th anniversary this year. Janice Lathen spoke about how the idea for Powering Potential came to her. While on safari in Tanzania in 2006, Janice visited the Bankija School and greeted the students in their native Swahili. The youngsters were thrilled to hear their language spoken by a visitor and Janice mutually was overwhelmed by their enthusiastic response.
Janice knew right then that she wanted to do something to enhance the students’ education. As a computer entrepreneur, she decided to return to Tanzania with 10 computers and stay for one month to teach the students how to use the computers and to engender in them the joys of technology. She was then informed that there was no electricity to power the hardware and thus was born the idea for Powering Potential, whereby solar power and offline digital educational resources would make computer usage possible in underserved rural communities.
Today, Powering Potential can proudly report the following milestones:
- 97 programs have been implemented;
- 34,000+ teachers and students have embraced digital education in rural settings;
- 60% of respondents report continuing their education beyond secondary school;
- 58% of respondents report securing employment because of their technology skills;
- 3,000+ students have enrolled in Tanzanian national ICT curriculum for secondary schools.
Eng. Albin Mathias of PEF can appreciate these statistics more than most. He told the Lunch and Learn attendees that when he was a student, he was eager to learn about computers, but he “never had the chance.” To him, access was everything and, when he finally met Janice, he understood that what was not possible for him would be so for the thousands of students who follow in his footsteps. Today, as Executive Director of the Potential Enhancement Foundation, he helps to make realities of students’ dreams.
Mr. Sabasaba Moshingi, a banker by profession, faced a great workplace challenge by not knowing how to turn on a computer. He understood all too well how important computer knowledge and access are to young people, and when he met Janice Lathen and he learned what she was doing in Tanzania, he quickly “fell in love” with PPI and PEF. Today, he enthusiastically encourages others to join in supporting the work of the partner organizations, so that many more students can consider a computer a necessity and not the “luxury” it currently is for so many.
Right now, we are raising funds to install a SPARC+ lab at the SoitSambu Secondary School in the Ngorongoro District of Tanzania. In 2014, the school received a SPARC lab complete with five computers. Presently, 700+ students attend SoitSambu. SPARC+ will increase the total number of computers available to them from five to 20. The program requires expanding the solar energy system, upgrading the computers and software, installing the Tanzanian digitized secondary school curriculum and providing training to students and teachers. This project is budgeted at $24,000. Please help us to reach this goal by donating to SoitSambu.
After SoitSambu, our next project is an installation of a SPARC lab at Nanenane Secondary School at Morogoro, Tanzania, where 800 students attend classes. And we have big plans for future installations.
The Lunch and Learn attendees were curious if PPI plans to expand outside of Tanzania and Peru, the two countries in which PPI now implements its programs. Janice Lathen indicated that she receives lots of requests from schools in other countries eager to utilize PPI’s programs and she hopes that PPI will be able to entertain such requests, going forward. Expansion will be possible with the advent of additional funding, which is why our kind supporters are the lifeblood of Powering Potential.
Powering Potential looks forward to future Lunch and Learn sessions. Please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest developments.