From digital trash to social gold

Covid-19 required students to learn from home but many did not have access to a computer and the Internet.

In March 2020, TOP (Technology Of Peace) movement initiated a pilot in Israel:

• Companies and individuals are donating computers and additional equipment (monitors, keyboards...)

• Technical teams from 3 different schools recycled the computers and set up customized Linux distro light enough that old computers with only 1Gb RAM can run it

• 100s of computers were offered to families and children in need, in exchange of volunteering hours to their community

Benefits

Social

The community around the school becomes more active and all pupils are now remotely connected to their schools

Economy

“Needy” people are no longer a burden, they become leaders .

“Trash” is no longer trash but has value.

Environment

There is no need to throw away computers that  impact the environment.

Outcome

Reducing digital & social gaps

Due to Covid-19, schools and universities all over the world closed for an indefinite lapse of time. Even if some of the institutions open, the digital gap is definitely here to stay.

In Israel, we're talking about more than 200,000 pupils/students who did not have a computer. 

Worldwide, we're talking about 100s of millions of pupils:

It required students to learn from home except that it was not possible for those who did not have access to a computer and the Internet. 

Number of schools and universities are actually taking this crisis to change the way they teach so that the online teaching will stay part of the cursus.

Getting computers

Companies and individuals regularly buy new powerful computers due to the growing demand of Windows operating system. Computers (1+Gb RAM) work well with specially developed Linux distro  

Upgrading computers 

Training youth (9-10+), teachers of a school on how to upgrade the computers. 

They form a technical independent team that is self sufficient and able to then train others. This step involves: receiving the computer, going through a checklist for possible defects, installing the new operating system and additional programs and setting parameters. 10 year old pupils are perfectly able to accomplish those tasks. 

Upgrading Internet infrastructure

Use ad hoc solutions such as WIFI dongles+satellite dishes for remote connexions, local networks

Community work

The school organizes along with the community a time bank with various skills , activities that youth and families can provide on one hand and need on the other hand. The basic idea is to give 30 hours of volunteering in exchange for the computer. Volunteering may be very diverse: from helping old people, mentoring younger pupils etc.

Providing computers to specific people

The school identifies the pupils or families in need for a computer. Then, they receive basic training on how to use the computer.

Families, children who cannot afford to purchase a computer or have an old computer at home, which is useless because it cannot run Windows 10 OS.

Donating equipment to needy populations will still keep them in the mindset of the victims. Whereas, organizing some activities to the ones who do not have the equipment empower them.
What is more, providing them with open source technology allows them to own it, develop it to their own needs and not be simply passive users of proprietary technologies.

We have tested this model in 3 different locations in Israel and there are some lessons to be made before scaling up.

Pilot has taken place in:

- Bereshit school in Jerusalem in a low class neighborhood of religious Jewish pupils including of Ethiopian origin. Some 70 computers were missing

- Jaffa (South Tel-Aviv) yaffamustakbal school of arab pupils some 200 computers were missing

- Kseifa (Neguev) Almotanbi school of beduin pupils some 300-500 computers were missing but also internet infrastructure

Our approach is holistic and sustainable and takes into account all aspects:

• Equipment considered as trash becomes valuable
• Victims/needy people become leaders in their community and beyond
• Each school/community can create and develop continuously its own distro with their specific needs unlike operating systems created in another country by people who do not know the profiles. We turn a top down approach to a bottom up approach
• This is a perfect opportunity for pupils to become producers and not passive consumers. From Consumer to Prosumer
• This should show people and companies that there is no real need to change computers every couple of years and/or that they can easily help the communities around them

current number of people: directly some 500 children. Assuming there are 4-6 people in each family, we are talking about 2000-3000 people

number  in one year: each of the 3 schools continue the project on their own, so that the number may double without any external support but the holistic solution may not be fully in place.

number in 5 years: the sky is the limit if we can turn the pilot into a successful operation, taking into account that remote learning remains out of reach for 500 million students (according to UN - SDG 4)

Already measuring:

• pupils participate to school activities
• bank of hours of volunteering
• number of students involved in the tech lab & leadership 

Additional:

• Traffic on the website of the school/class

We are working with Swiss Based AI company : Global Data Excellence and its CEO Dr Walid el Abed is one of the advisory board member of TOP.

We intend to use DEMS system to connect data from the field to the goals and rules of the project so that we can query the information systems in natural language and create on the fly additional meaningful parameters

General team: 10 people (see details of people on website)

Technical team: 5

Each location: school director, head, 5-10 teachers, 10-20 pupils

• Working with minorities (Ethiopians, Beduins, Arabs, Religious) 
• pupils in needs
• Within the educational system in Israel and abroad:in Kenya where close to 800 educational officers were trained on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by Eyal Bloch, and the initiative continued through TOP with Philippe Scheimann 
• Training the trainers
• Technology: 
  • Philippe is an electronics engineer, Ph and David Lawrence are Internet veterans (since 1990) with much experience in open source development (hardware and software)
  • Udi has developed Tzabaros for already a good number of years and keeps upgrading it
• Sharing economy: Eyal and his team are the leading figures in Israel in this growing field
• Involvement of NGOs, companies: the team is well connected and was thus able to bring in the relevant organizations and people to donate, support and volunteer
• Sustainability dimension: multiple international projects have taken place so that we have now developed a holistic approach that can be replicated

Eyal and Philippe are the co-creators of TOP (Technology of Peace) whose mission is to turn the old paradigm of Profit/Planet/People to People/Planet/Profit:

Focussing on the well-being of the people 

Who take care of the planet

and there is enough profit for all the people involved

There is a need for additional people, organizations and funds to turn these pilots into a successful initative.

At this point, we are showing a very innovative approach that has been tested in several locations in Israel and we would be thrilled if it could be scaled up.

In each country or location, we need to find the right people and the right organizations to start this project: the methodology is there with fine-tuning required in order to make it work successfully.

The business model is very much associated to ESG parameters where companies could truly prove that their contributions to the society can be proved in most of the aspects: environment, social and governance

Financial:
there is a need to put figures into this project, finetune for instance the 'price' of a computer, the set up of a lab etc.

Public Relations:
while we have made this documentary (that has been shown in Portland Sept 2020 Ecology Festival) , there is a whole story that can be shown and inspire millions of people

Monitoring and Evaluation: we'll need to gather the various data to help prove that companies that are donating equipment, help x youth etc.

Service distribution: there is a need to approach more and more local authorities and educational organizations.

• Companies donating equipment
• Local authorities 
• NGO working with educational organizations,  youth at risk, minorities...
• Universities, colleges are welcome to join so that they can provide some technical support as well as fine-tuning the business model of sharing economy

Our team works under IWA (Institute of World Affairs), an NGO based in Washington DC lead by Prof Hrach Gregorian.

Students in schools can be involved in such projects from different levels.

The main theme is to look at the abilities and resources of the youth.

Similarly to the Beduin school in the Neguev where we are now putting in place a computer lab, some computer labs or actually makers rooms will need to be implemented for the recycle of the computers. Youth will gain technical skills as well as leadership skills so that they will be able to gain some expertise and acquire a career.

The technology part is only one aspect of the project. The main part for Refugee Inclusion is the part where refugees stop being in a needy place, victims but their potential and abilities is truly emphasized so that they become leaders, develop a career and can integrate the society they live in.

Thanks to this holistic approach of providing computers to people in need, those people are no longer in the 'victim' situation, not-equal part, but they become highly digital experts, and in some case, they have the opportunity to enter the open source world, and create their own solutions that can then become the 'new iPad', create a company ...

One aspect of our solution is focusing on what people can give back to their community.

We have introduced the notion of bank of hours, the next level would be to create a local currency based upon crypto.