Tech: key to re-empower 42 surviving communities

Dear friend, 

On the 10th of August, a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, taking an untold number of lives and causing widespread destruction across affected communities.  When an earthquake strikes, we think about houses, roads, hospitals, water, and food. But there is something else that is affected—something we talk about far less: education.

In Chocó, Cali, and Buenaventura—areas already facing significant gaps in learning, infrastructure, and connectivity—a catastrophe can widen those divides even further.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Reconstruction offers an opportunity to close some of those gaps if we approach it using AI—Augmented Intelligence. That means involving the children and young people who need to keep learning, making them active participants in the rebuilding process as they think through and solve the "Big Questions" arising from this emergency.

At SOLE Colombia, we believe that the Augmented Intelligence of diverse communities taking charge of their own learning—combined with the technology and methodology that enable them to create solutions—can play a vital role in that reconstruction.

That’s why we created SOLE Labs HUM (DIY - Do It Yourself): easy-to-assemble technology infrastructure that allows communities to connect to the Internet in groups and create spaces for learning and collaborative problem-solving. Supported by training and networking opportunities, these spaces link up to form the Library of the Future.

Since the earthquake, we started receiving requests from communities and organizations in need of a SOLE Lab HUM to support communities where schools collapsed. We currently have 3 ready for deployment. The first is focused on a fishing community where we are moving forward in Bahía Málaga, off the coast of Buenaventura. This is an afrodescendent community whose primary school was affected. They have manifested their interest and we are conversing on the long-term partnership to get Bahía Málaga connected to the Library of the Future. Initial steps are agile, but that isn't enough to deploy as we still need to fund the whole experience which is around 50,000 USD. 

And this is where you can make a difference.

Your donation can help fund a SOLE Lab for a community that needs to get connected right now—so they can keep learning and creating solutions to the challenges they face together.

You don't have to do it all. You just have to do your part. By working together, we can build more SOLE Labs, reach more areas, and ensure that a disaster doesn't turn into an educational crisis as well.

If you want to make a difference, donate to SOLE Colombia. Because rebuilding is also about helping communities keep on learning.

With gratitude,

The SOLE Colombia Team