The final highlight of the ASU SolarSPELL team’s time in Samoa was a two-day training with the Peace Corps volunteers and their local counterpart teachers. This was our team’s first opportunity to carry out a training with local teachers, and we are so grateful for the Samoa Peace Corps staff for suggesting it and then […]
The ASU SolarSPELL Team’s second day of visiting Peace Corps volunteers’ sites took place on Upolu Island. We first visited Cynthia’s school, and got a tour of the school’s library. Once again, the ASU students got to spend some quality time with the primary-level students. We even got to demonstrate the SolarSPELL to these students, […]
In May 2017, the ASU SolarSPELL team traveled to Samoa to carry out a training on the SolarSPELL digital libraries with both Peace Corps volunteers and their local counterpart teachers. Before this training took place, however, the team had the opportunity to visit some volunteers who had received SolarSPELL libraries (and training) one year prior, […]
The ASU SolarSPELL team’s final two days in Vanuatu were spent at the national ICT Days conference, May 17-18. The conference proved to be a fantastic opportunity for the team to explain, demonstrate, and all around talk about the SolarSPELL and the Library Lab. The team never would have imagined such a level of interest! […]
The ASU SolarSPELL team’s third site visit was to Nancy’s village of in Nguna on Monday, May 15, 2017. With a village population of about 130 and no electricity, running water, or Internet connectivity, this village faces significant challenges. To give one example, there is no school beyond a kindergarten. All schoolchildren must travel to […]
On Saturday, May 13, the ASU SolarSPELL team was thrilled at having the opportunity to join Peace Corps volunteers Katie and Jack as they traveled back to their “home” island of Lelepa. There was a crowd of children at the pier, all of whom were elated to see Katie, whom they knew as their teacher. […]
Cyclone Donna—a category 5 Cyclone that passed near to Vanuatu on May 8 & 9—effectively canceled our plans to travel to Ambae and Maewo Islands, respectively, to see Peace Corps volunteers in-action, visit their schools and health care centers, and carry out impact evaluations. Nonetheless, we were able to find multiple silver linings: Thanks to […]
On Thursday, May 11, 2017, the ASU SolarSPELL team had an unexpected, additional opportunity to meet a group of current Vanuatu Peace Corps volunteers, and give them a training on using the SolarSPELL, as well as provide this group with updated hardware and content. It was a fantastic opportunity to let these volunteers know the […]
On May 9, 2017, the SolarSPELL team held a training with 41 incoming Peace Corps volunteers in Port Vila, Vanuatu. This was a record number of volunteers in a training for our team—by nearly double! This training also marked the official launch of SolarSPELL Health—a new phase and programmatic focus for the SolarSPELL, complementing and […]
On Saturday April 8th 2017, a dedicated and motivated group of 30+ volunteers came together at ASU’s Polytechnic campus and built 100 SolarSPELL digital libraries. This is the largest build in the history of the project! These libraries will go out with Peace Corps volunteers across the Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, Samoa, the Federated States […]