So this is the current state of affairs.

• RUCUS has people willing to go into the township to fix and setup computers.
• RUCUS has people willing to teach (courses, Scifest etc.)
• The CoE wants to contribute financially (not directly but through assets e.g. pizza for helpers, hardware for RUCUS)
• The SRC wants to find a bunch of sponsorship to buy computers for a school. The school will be decided by having a wall painting competition.
• Rhodes providing connectivity to many schools for a few years through foundation.dsl and soon wireless connectivity.

It seems these three can be combined. I have just had a meeting with Alf and he has some big plans which I hope we can carry forward.

A rough POA would consist of something like:

1. Speak to Education Department (Cheryl Hodgkinson) about the teaching component. Teachers need to be taught and RUCUS has people willing to do it.
2. Speak to Colin Johnson (Rhodes VP) about getting Rhodes support for the idea.
3. Speak to Marketing division on possible avenues of sponsorship.
1. European Union
2. Big Computer Companies, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems etc.
3. Government

What we are looking to do is set Rhodes up as an ISP for the schools in the townships. This has some issues with Tenet but these can be resolved. It would also require extra resources to the IT department (support staff etc.). This is the long term-goal.

We also want to start getting computer rolled out to the townships. This needs money. The set-up and installation can be done by the already willing RUCUS people.

We need to start teaching these teachers how to use computers. I am imagining large classes of teachers from the townships in the public labs over the course of a few weeks. We have people willing to teach in RUCUS.

The SRC needs to pull these together and start looking for some big funding. These needs to be done as 'Rhodes' hopefully using upper-management's ties.