Mico Theogene is a Bridge2Rwanda Scholar. SolarSPELL has recently named him one of the SolarSPELL Bridge2Rwanda Internship Team. This is Mico’s reflection on our week long Content Curation Workshop:
The world is full of injustice, discrimination, poverty, and inequality. It is astonishing to meet people who devote their skills and lives to fighting against the devastation that is destroying our world. One group of people who do this is the SolarSPELL team. I first met the team in June 2017. I was touched by the passion of these compassionate souls whose aim is to promote the education of children through their invention of digital libraries for people in remote areas without Internet access. It is not every day that we meet people who invest everything in people to whom they owe nothing, yet SolarSPELL is doing it in the Pacific Islands and more recently, in Africa.
Fortunately, I was among the group of scholars from Bridge2Rwanda who SolarSPELL worked with this January to curate content for the East African SolarSPELL digital library. In only a week, we curated over 300 files, specifically the content that covers Africa, to be added to the East African SolarSPELL library. I was amazed by this achievement. If a small group of students like us could do this, imagine how much more could be done if more people were willing to partake in this project. The outcome would be tremendous, impactful, and indescribable.
SolarSPELL is built to heal those who are geographically excluded, financially disadvantaged, and technologically lacking. This last week was a life-changing experience for me. I discerned that I am a part of something bigger than me and have a responsibility to my community, particularly to less privileged people. More importantly, I have decided to be a part of this project for the rest of my life. Through SolarSPELL, I have realized that I am a global citizen. Thank you SolarSPELL for helping me realize my role in the world.
