Youth Action Africa. The Greenhouse Center

Transcription

1 Youth Action Africa The Greenhouse Center In February 2013 Youth Action Africa launched the Greenhouse Center in Bali, Cameroon. The main objective of the Center is to strengthen the Bali community by increasing access to information. The Greenhouse will serve as a Center where students, families, and professionals alike can gather to learn, share knowledge, and become engaged. The Center offers services that include Internet, computer literacy classes, library services, computer rentals and donations, computer maintenance, business consulting, entrepreneurship development, and printing services. The Greenhouse Center is the first center of its kind in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Many other Internet centers offer only browsing services, and customers lack the resources required to access educational information. At the Greenhouse Center, members will not only be able to use the Internet to educate themselves, but will have access to computer literacy classes, library services, and more. Target Population The Greenhouse s target population is students, but also includes families, professionals, and individuals looking to increase their computer literacy. The Greenhouse targets the student population because of the lack of educational resources currently available to Cameroonian students. Additionally, when students increase their computer literacy they stand to gain significantly more educational and employment opportunities. The Greenhouse also targets families by offering family memberships and rates. The Greenhouse hopes that by offering family rates, families will be encouraged to take advantage of the center and increase their computer literacy. Individual rates are also available at the center for individuals or professionals who wish to improve their skills or simply maintain the knowledge that they already have. Operations The Greenhouse is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Hours will also be extended to 10 PM during exam times. These hours ensure that students will have enough time after school to complete their house chores and visit the Center. The Center will also be open on Saturdays to allow students the extra day to take advantage of all of the Center s services. To become a member of the Greenhouse, one must register. Registration is 1,000 CFA for the first two months with a 200 CFA renewal fee for each additional month, or 2,000 CFA upfront for the entire year. Membership at the center includes an identification badge and discounted access to the Center s services. For computer classes, registered

2 members will pay only 5,000 CFA per month per person. A registered family of five will also pay only 15,000 CFA per month. Unregistered members must pay 8,000 CFA per month per person, and there is no group option for non-registered members. Registered members will also enjoy free access to the center s library. Internet The Greenhouse offers extremely competitive Internet rates. One hour of Internet will cost 200 CFA and six hours of Internet will cost only 1,000 CFA. Customers will not be allowed to use flash drives or to download any materials onto the computer. Additionally, customers will not be allowed to use the Internet for any inappropriate purposes. Library Services The Greenhouse Center offers all registered members access to its collection of books. Book topics include business development, entrepreneurship, strategic management, autobiographies, marketing, and more. Each book is marked or stamped in some way as the property of Youth Action Africa. Currently, members will not be able to take books outside of the center, as there is not yet an agreed upon form of collateral. Once a form of collateral has been decided, each member will only be permitted to sign out one book at a time for a maximum period of five days. At the time of sign out, the member s name, phone number, and name of the book must be written down in the library sign out book. Members who return their books late will be charged 100 CFA for each day that the book is overdue. If the book is never returned, the member will be charged the entire cost of the book. Computer Classes The Greenhouse Center offers computer literacy classes that include tutorials on typing, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher. These tutorials are installed on 11 computers and will be available for use at any time of day. In addition to traditional computer literacy classes, the Greenhouse Center will host educational sessions taught by a Peace Corps volunteer. These sessions may cover topics that include women s health, nutrition, fitness, and general health. Computer Donations and Rentals The Greenhouse Center hopes to give students in the area the opportunity to have and use their own computers through donations and rentals. One way the Center will do this is by identifying student members who have the potential to learn computer maintenance. These students will then be offered the opportunity to volunteer at the center. When the student s volunteering period is complete, the Greenhouse will donate a computer to the student.

3 The Greenhouse Center will also allow organizations to apply for computer donations. These organizations will be required to submit an application form detailing the main objectives of their organization, why the organization needs a computer, what kind of work the organization does, and where the organization operates. All organizations that receive a donation will also be required to provide feedback on the impact that their donations have had. Lastly, the Greenhouse will provide members the opportunity to rent computers. Members will be able to take a computer home for a predetermined amount of time in order to increase their knowledge even further. The Greenhouse has yet to determine what form of collateral will be established for these rentals. One possibility though is to have all renters provide a reference person who can be contacted in the event of theft. The Greenhouse has also yet to determine the amount of time that computers may be rented out. Media Promotion and Marketing The first marketing method the Greenhouse Center employed was the donation of computers to high-level officials in Bali. These donations were announced at the February 11 th Youth Day celebrations, and were heard by thousands of Bali community members. The donations ensure that the Greenhouse Center enjoys an extremely high level of security from the local police and divisional officer. These officials are now regular figures at the Greenhouse Center, and have therefore significantly increased the Center s security. The donations also served to increase these officials capacity. Before receiving the computers, these officials had no means of data storage or organization. With the addition of these computers, they may now increase their productivity and capacity. Finally, as the Greenhouse Center s target population is students, Youth Action Africa has engaged several local schools. The Youth Action Africa team has distributed fliers, met with principals, and gone from classroom to classroom speaking about the Greenhouse Center. In addition, the team has handed out informational fliers to students as they travel to and from school. Expected Difficulties The Greenhouse Center is currently using four Orange Internet modems to serve ten computers. As a result, one stick is serving multiple computers and its Internet strength is compromised. This connection method is meant to be temporary, but has thus far presented many difficulties. Since the speed of the Internet is so slow, the Center s technicians have had extreme difficulty connecting computers to the main server. Additionally, many members have not been able to complete what they came to do because the Internet was too slow. This has happened on such numerous occasions that the Greenhouse staff is becoming concerned that these members will not return to the Center in the future. For this reason,

4 the Greenhouse staff is currently looking into several new means to access the Internet. These methods include point-to-point Internet access, which will allow the Center to use a stronger, faster signal located in the city of Bamenda. Photos The Greenhouse Center s Internet browsing section

5 The Greenhouse Center s computer literacy class section

6 The Greenhouse Center s library