Hi Pete,

We would very much like to meet with her and discuss what we can do.

You're quite right about the situation in South African schools. Many of them still have some combination of:

* very bad infrastructure * dangerous conditions * unreliable delivery of teaching materials * little or no access to computers.

We are a relatively young chapter, but have done some outreach programs, and we're eager to build our network. We are in contact with Iolanda Pensa who is very keen to help develop offline Wikipedia as a teaching tool in Africa, and have some allied organisations who can also help. We're also extremely keen to find teachers and schools who might be interested in using translation of Wikipedia articles into various South African languages as a teaching tool.

So, bottom line, please do put her in contact with us: let's see how far we can help to get each other connected.

Kind regards,

David

On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Pete Forsyth pete@wikistrategies.net wrote:

Hi David,

Richard Knipel (User:Pharos) recommended that I reach out to you.

I met a woman at the Connexions conference. She is from a school district in South Africa (I don't know exactly where) that is really struggling. It sounded very severe -- many different kinds of problems, including whether or how computers are incorporated into the curriculum, and ultimately none (or very few) of the students are able to pass standard exams.

She is meeting next week with somebody from the Ministry of Education. She is developing her pitch/request and wondering, among many other things, if she should be engaging with Wikimedia. As a Wikipedian, I of course mentioned Wikimedia South Africa to her, and she was very interested. (She attended my Introduction to Wikipedia session.)

I would like to know, candidly -- is this a situation where Wikimedia South Africa has something substantial to offer, or is her attention better directed elsewhere? After having talked with her more thoroughly, it seems to me like Wikimedia might generally not be a great resource for a district struggling with such basic needs. (For instance, perhaps OER Africa is better positioned to help address the kind of needs she has.) But it is very hard for me to give good advice, when I know so little about local conditions!

Can you offer any insights that might help?

-Pete

-- Pete Forsyth Principal, Wiki Strategies pete@wikistrategies.net +1 503-383-9454 www.wikistrategies.net

-- David Richfield - General Secretary: Wikimedia South Africa [[:en:User:Slashme]] +27718539985