We've been busy in 2016

We kicked off the new year in Sierra Leone and we were incredibly busy!

We went on this trip with the intention of expanding the digital library in Golu and starting the process to bring free internet into to Golu and the surrounding villages to leverage for educational purposes. What we ended up accomplishing in our 10 days, was much more than planned. Check it out!

• Participated, presented to and mentored a group of young, ambitious entrepreneurial minded individuals from Golu at the Global Social Business Institute (GSBI) Boost Accelerator in Freetown.
• Brought 10 new educational tablets to Golu's resource center digital library with expanded resources focusing on the primary age group.
• Taught the teachers and high school seniors of Golu, how to use the new tablets and access the wealth of educational resources.
• Provided solar to the country's only all girls boarding school so that 450+ students will now have light to study in the evenings with.
• Met with major National Telco's to begin discussions on partnering to build a tower that will eventually provide internet to Golu and 6 surrounding villages.

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We are now working with the Golu school headmaster and our partners in digital literacy to incorporate computer science as part of the schools curriculum this semester. Stayed tuned to learn more about this program.

If you would like to make a contribution to our on-going programs you can do so here: <<DONATE>>

Finally! We're back in Golu...Installing the digital library.

After a long year of battling Ebola, Sierra Leone is just over two weeks since the last reported Ebola case. They have started the 42 day countdown to be declared an Ebola free country. Fingers crossed things stay on track. Since the country is on the mend we are now able to get back to Salone and continue our work. Our last visit to Sierra Leone was almost two years ago and now we're back in town to install Golu's first ever solar powered digital library! This library will provide access to free educational resources for the whole village and surrounding villages.

Take a look at the library so far. It consists of a solar powered custom made server that is preloaded with online content that will be updated on a monthly basis and 3 solar powered custom made desktop computers. Thanks LamTech for your expertise and installation!

UPDATE: Radio Education & Tutoring Program In Golu Is Off To A Great Start!

The Radio Education & Tutoring Program has only been launched in Golu for just over a week and we're so pleased with the progress and participation so far! The community has really come together and made this program into something special.

Since 85% of the adults in Golu are uneducated, the resource center committee held a meeting with the parents to discuss sending the children to the village school building, along with their radios. This way the village can provide a classroom setting to aid in the learning process. The parents and resource center committee unanimously agreed that this would be the best approach to set the children up for success and get the most out of the program. In addition, the committee confirmed volunteer participation from the teachers in the community to spend daily time with the children, providing guidance during broadcasted class lectures. During the meeting they also agreed that the children should have a schedule, which will be to attend school Monday to Friday.

Even though school is not officially back in session, in the traditional sense, the community has really stepped up and come together to utilize the radios and supplies TVL provided. They have created a structured school environment, giving the children a chance to continue their education and succeed in this program. TVL is so proud of the people of Golu and how well the community has worked together on taking advantage of the tools and resources we provided. Take a look at our most recent photos of the program below.

TVL Co-Director's Innovative Software Helps Sierra Leone In Fight Against Ebola

The Village Link's Co-Director, Evelyn Lewis is a very busy man. When he's not helping TVL, he is working for his other company, SBTS Group - an ICT consulting firm and TrainingSol - a training company and jobs portal. Most recently Evelyn has poured his time, money and resources into helping Sierra Leone fight the Ebola crisis in a more organized way despite the fact that his own business is suffering due to this crisis. He decided he needed to help because he could. Evelyn is just one of many Sierra Leonian entrepreneurs that have seen a major loss in revenue due to Ebola.

After he visited the EOC (Emergency Operations Center), the central coordination center all the agencies giving support, he immediately saw they were in need of help. What he saw was quite alarming given the magnitude of the crisis. There was only one lady, tasked with the job of answering phones and responsible for reporting all ebola cases in the country. This is when he knew that if Sierra Leone was going to battle this virus and have a shot at defeating it, they would have to more organized and better prepared to handle the workload.

Immediately, Evelyn got all of his staff started on writing a new software to coordinate the Ebola effort for the call center  and to make sure it was tailored specific to this effort. The new software is appropriately named the Ebola Operating System (EOS).

As Evelyn describes, "the need for the software was noted as the significant increase in calls contained sensitive operational and time-bound information required by the numerous ebola response teams and to primarily make sure all cases and calls were logged at the initial point of contact coming through the main telephone number 117 and centralize data gathering and sharing." The EOC call center was able to expand it's call center resources from only 16 lines to 62 lines with this new software.

Previously, call agents would handwrite the initial recordings at the beginning of the operations, then enter this data into separate excel spreadsheets causing a backlog of manual entry and delays in reaching out to the respective teams and susceptible to mistakes. This new software provides unified data in a centralized system based on the feedback of field teams.

In addition to building out a customized software, free of charge for all NGO's and the EOC to use, Evelyn and his team were able to provide training for the Ebola efforts and actually hired and trained all 200 employees for the call center, provided credential services for the quarantined areas and vehicle passes etc., to cover about 50,000 persons.  Evelyn and his team also donated short term support completely free to the people of Sierra Leone to help fight this crisis.

It's still an uphill battle they are fight in Sierra Leone but at least they are more organized and able to respond in a more timely manner, thanks to Evelyn and his teams timely response and generous donation. We're so proud of the work he is providing his country!