In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re looking back on the most recent SolarSPELL training with Peace Corps Lesotho education volunteers and teacher counterparts. This is our third year of working with volunteers and teachers in Lesotho to improve literacy, numeracy and life skills education using offline digital libraries. Together, we have brought SolarSPELL libraries to 44 Basotho primary schools, reaching approximately 17,000 learners.
In early January 2025 the ASU SolarSPELL team returned to Lesotho to lead a train-the-trainer with Peace Corps Volunteers and counterpart teachers from across Lesotho. This was the team’s sixth trip to (and sixth training in) Lesotho in three years, and we remain extremely grateful for the warm hospitality we experience each time. We particularly want to thank Peace Corps Lesotho for so graciously welcoming and hosting us.
As usual, the training kicked off with an overview and background of the SolarSPELL Initiative. It continued with a hands-on review of the library hardware, led by Bruce Baikie, SolarSPELL co-founder and co-director. This training marked a particularly noteworthy occasion, as the schools represented here were the first in the country to receive SolarSPELL’s new-and-improved library hardware!
We were also fortunate to be joined by Ryan Watling, a Master’s student in ASU’s Global Technology and Development (GTD) program and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), who served in the Dominican Republic from 2018 to 2020. Ryan gave training participants an overview of the Coverdell Fellows Program, which provides financial assistance to RPCVs who pursue graduate studies, and described Coverdell fellowship opportunities at ASU, in particular. He continued by sharing his experience serving on SolarSPELL’s qualitative data analysis team, which he joined when he enrolled at ASU a year and a half ago.
Ryan stayed in Lesotho for an additional two weeks following the training, visiting schools across the country to conduct interviews and surveys with teachers who have been using SolarSPELL libraries for the past year. After spending 18 months coding, analyzing, interpreting and reflecting upon data gathered in previous years, having the opportunity to do data collection himself brought Ryan’s experience with SolarSPELL’s impact evaluation full circle.
Another highlight of the training was the inclusion of SolarSPELL champions from the 2024 cohort of trainees, who have been using the libraries successfully in their schools. PCV Luke and Basotho teacher M’e’ Mamoroesi shared with the new trainees their experiences introducing and using the SolarSPELL library at their school, highlighting not just wins but also challenges and how they overcame them. Ryan later visited this school during his travels, so stay tuned to learn more!
But by far one of the most exciting moments of the training came when the local teachers requested to spend some extra time together with the library. They stayed late after the first day of training had wrapped up, gathered around the library, and then shared some valuable resources they had found on the library during the training. The group also shared best practices and exchanged WhatsApp contact info to be able to stay in contact with one another after the training!
The ASU SolarSPELL Initiative empowers offline communities globally by providing localized libraries and building the 21st century skills that people need to make informed decisions, increase their self-reliance and improve their quality of life.
