Africa PRO9

Cyber Matters
Guinea W Africa

Don Dirks is a Canadian citizen by birth [1933] but has lived abroad for over 39 years. Fourteen of those years were spent in Gabon as a missionary with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. In 1997, Don and his wife returned to Canada and at the age of 65 Don "retired" from active service. Since then, Don has devoted every spare minute to developing a hobby, namely the building, repairing or upgrading of computers for seniors. In a span of 12 years, Don learned computer skills on his own and restored over 1,000 computers as a gift to Senior Citizens (including house calls).

Seven years ago he was invited to go to Burkina Faso (BF) in West Africa to repair computers in several schools, including High Schools and Municipal Schools as well as at a Relief and Development headquarters in Bobo Dioulassou. In 2008 he flew to Africa (BF) as a volunteer and gave three weeks of training to six trainees in repairing, maintaining and troubleshooting computers. In addition to helping his host agency a National Relief and Development Agency in BF (ACCEDES) he assisted a large Municipal High School, a Technical School and two Muslim High Schools. in 2011 he made a second follow-up trip to Burkina Faso to complete what was begun in 2008.

Now it is time to build on those experiences and to reach out to other needy areas in West Africa.

That experience showed him what needed to be done and gave birth to this project.

PROJECT GOAL:

To bring computer and Internet access technology to Guinea, West AFRICA; and assist (as needed) NGO Hospitals and/or Clinics, Ecclesiastic Institutes, High Schools, Radio Stations, Church and Mission Headquarters, as well as Church sponsored Social Service Enterprises.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

The initial Research and Planning stage is in progress.
A Prospection/work trip is being planned to put me on the
ground at the Hope Medical Center by the Spring of 2012.
(1) Negotiations have already begun. Letters of Invitation
have been requested that will facilitate the Visa process.
(2) The general needs at the targeted sites have already been studied
by field personnel.
(3) At each targeted site we have already identified the
Leaders with whom we will work
(4) A Separate Budget is being prepared.
The exploratory trip should allow us to determine the exact needs which will then permit us to return to Canada to acquire, prepare, and ship the components. Only then will we be able to schedule a return visit to Guinea for the installation and training phase of thisproject.

Contact Don or read more from his blog
http://www.wix.com/didirks4help2wa/donsdiary