Saman Internet Center

There is, again, not much to report for the internet center, mainly because of the continued absence of Peralta, the man who founded and heads up the community development organization that the internet center will go to serve. He continues to spend weeks at a time outside of the community in order to work, and comes for a few days only in intervals. However, he is now transitioning from work away from home to work more frequently at home, and his business is growing, so it may not be long before he will be able to spend much more time in the Saman community and oversee the internet center and organization as a whole. Previously he was doing garden work in an area of the country two hours away. But now he has a functioning vehicle and is selling rice. He will soon start utilizing his candle maker and adding candles to the merchandise he drives around and sells. This business is just beginning but is going well, so once it gets stable, he should be a much more present husband to his wife, father to his kids, and leader to the organization. There is still a group willing on coming down this fall to help set up the finishing touches with the internet center. Let’s hope that Peralta can get his business going before then to the point where he can be as present as he needs to be. Thank you, always, for your support! 

Links:

• stories from on the ground
• organization director's personal blog

We have 6 desktop computers in our possession in the US, donated by a global computer company called CSC. We had hoped to use perhaps 3 of them to start the Saman Internet Center, but we still have absent leadership that will cause us to have to use these computers for other purposes, then solicit more in the future when the leadership is prepared.

Again, Peralta, who leads the community development organization that this internet center will be a part of is chronically absent from the community working in a garden hours away in order to support his large family. He has plans to transition to a business at home but is still trying to save up in order to make the transition. He was set back by his mother passing away in August and the funeral costs there. We have not met in more than a month and I, therefore, have no update as to how things are coming along on that end. But in addition to his necessary presence, the community development organization as a whole needs to regroup before taking on such a project as the launching of the internet center. So the launching has been set back due to these reasons. We are setting the tentative launch date for sometime next fall.

Another issue is that we hope to have a computer savvy, Spanish speaking expat there to at least oversee the first few months of the Internet center, train locals in proper computer use, and work with a trained local in order to enhance their likely sub par computer repair skills in order to be able to handle things after this person leaves. We have solicited for a Peace Corps volunteer for this purpose. The next round of volunteers come in May, but we were told these are likely already designated to projects and we may have to wait until September unless someone does a project change. If we get a volunteer before the center will launch, we have plenty of work in other areas of our organization for him or her.

Thank you, always, for your interest and support!

Links:

• Project Esperanza Home Page