STEM Education in Africa: Changing the Equation

If it has been awhile since iNERDE last sent an update, it is because we have had some amazing successes and have been swamped with work that is fulfulling our objective to change the equation in Africa.

Perhaps the biggest news is that the Malian government, recognizing the importance of our project, is now an official sponsor, is partially funding us, and working hard themselves to provide all the support they can to carry out our mission and to raise it to the next level to achieve a broad impact on their educational system. We've formed a consortium, EMMME (Education for the Modern World (Monde, in French) : Mali Emergent, consisting of universities, schools, professional organizations, and entrepreneurs, with government sponsorship and encouragement, that is putting in place a plan for introducting transformative education on a large scale in Mali.

It has been very rewarding for us working in Mali to find so many people, despite the challenges the country faces, and the challenges individuals face every day, willing to support our goals and give us their all to help realize them. We have many volunteers - some who can barely afford the transportation fare to get to our center - who believe in their country and come here because they see something very important happening.

Our Innovation Center has been open and in operation since December. Right now, our primary activity is training Mali's national middle school and high school robotics teams. Didn't know that Mali had national robotics teams? Of course not, they didn't exist until iNERDE - and you, our supporters - created them. We held a nationwide selection and took 41 brilliant young people from 17 different schools - seeds we are planting in the educational system - and have given them months of specialized, intensive training in robotics and programming. We took what has to one of the toughest bus rides in the world - 40 hard hours - to bring the team to Dakar where they competed in an regional robotics competition. We're also holding local competitions in Bamako. And we are preparing to send 7 high school students to the United States to compete in the Olympics of high-school robotics, FIRST Global. These activities have been covered in the local press and even on Mali's national television network.

We are preparing for 4th STEM summer camp in Bamako. A big leap for iNERDE is that this year we will offer programs for kids from the 4th grade through high school. With all the work we've done with robots this year, you can be sure that robots and programming will be a big part of the curriculum but we are definitely not ignoring all the other areas of science and technology with new modules in biology using foldscopes and civil engineering. We are also adding more emphasis on integrating the arts into our program.

The first two summer camps were free and for this reason attracted many families that had never heard of STEM. Last year we started charging a modest fee, while giving scholarships to almost half our students. This year we are raising our prices as there are many families who now understand the importance of STEM education for the future of their children and their country and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. This is in line with our stated goal of moving to being self-sustaining, without relying on your generosity. The Malian government has stepped up and the parents have stepped up and they are doing their best to support our initiative.

That said, I would like to ask for your continued financial support, if you have the means to help us. We have successful established our ability to survive over the long term, with or without your support. That alone is a good reason to continue to support us. But, to paint the picture honestly, our means are very meager and lacks of means does greatly impact the quality of our offering and the number of kids we can reach. Our facilities are modest to say the least, and it is hard to teach tech to kids in poorly lit rooms, without good tables and chairs, with ancient computers, with constant electricity cuts (that blow out light bulbs and our power supplies), an ancient diesel generator for the power cuts that makes so much noise we have to yell out our lessons. We make do with what we have and we are grateful for what we have, but coming from the US and knowing what is normal there, it hurts me everyday to recognize that my kids in Mali will never have the chance to catch up if we cannot continue to upgrade our infrastructure. The means that the Malian government and Malian parents can provide can meet our operational expenses but it cannot give us the ability to improve what we have.

Hey, we need laptops! Many companies routinely discard or donate old laptops ... with the cost of new laptops being so low a company can almost buy a new laptop from the tax benefit of donating the old one. Please ask your employer if they have laptops they can donate to iNERDE. We have about 30 working desktop computers in our center ... which shutoff everytime we have a power cut (and sometimes for good due to damaged power supplies). Right now we are experiencing 5 or 6 power cuts per day. We could solve the problem if only we had laptops instead of desktops.

While you are asking your company if they have laptops to donate, perhaps you could also see if they are interested in being a sponsor of TEAM MALI for the FIRST Global robotics olymics. 150 nations are sending teams to Washington, DC July 14-19. There is extensive media coverage already taking place for this event of enormous magnitude, reach, and even political implications. You would think companies would be lining up for a sponsorship opportunity - and TEAM MALI is going to be one of most extraordinary stories to come out of the event - yet, we're still at 0 sponsors.

It's a bit perplexing, but as iNERDE continues to rack up successes our donor support has fallen to abysmally low levels. Our effort to raise money for the expenses of TEAM MALI has yielded, to date, $150. Is it because all of you have nothing on your minds now except TRUMP? I guess it is one thing to be in the US for the Trump era, but is something else to be in Africa where life and economic prosperity are fragile and very dependant on what the powerful nations do. I think Trump's slogan should have been "Make America Self-Obsessed Again" because, more than anything, that is what he's done whether you love him or hate him. Our beloved supporters, thank you for helping to get where we are and to bring the world a step closer to being just and prosperous for all the continents - but please forget about Trump for a little while and continue to support the creation of the world we all want to live in.