Just before my recent journey to Rwanda, Kimberly and I had the pleasure of meeting Anne Prinzhorn in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Anne has spent much of her life in one of Rwanda’s neighboring countries, Uganda, and she has a clear passion for education in challenged communities.
More than 20 years ago, God inspired Anne to found EduTek Global. EduTek Global delivers information using the spark of modern technology. They educate people in under-served areas of the world lifting the standard of living via an EduPak. An EduPak streams indexed educational and informational videos to any smart device. With this technology, they are able to deliver education in an offline environment.
Thanks to an anonymous donor, Hope Haven Rwanda acquired one of these state-of-the-art systems and I had the pleasure of introducing it to our team. Last week, we installed the system and experimented with about 35 teachers using it simultaneously. We installed the antenna in a great location in the middle of the school compound, and the range proved to be about 100 meters, or 330 feet.
Everyone was very excited to use the system, with more than 40,000 videos easily accessible and streaming at lightning speeds. Teachers were immediately drawn to exploring the tutorials. It was wonderful to see math teachers looking at math lessons, science teachers looking at science projects, people reading books, others listening to music, while some watched children’s videos. It was all very exciting!
As I demonstrated the system, we projected one of the teacher’s laptops onto a large screen in our multipurpose space, and I was able to show them some of the medical school videos which are included. I’m not sure that everyone appreciated me showing them a video of a skin graft on an actual patient. However, they all agreed that the EduTek system delivered an amazing amount of information on any internet-enabled device!
While Hope Haven Rwanda has a robust infrastructure for technology internally, we are still dependent upon the limited bandwidth of the mobile network data system that is available in our community. This will change soon, as Rwanda continues to develop as a leader in African information technology. For now, we are doing everything that we can to prepare our faculty and students to emerge as Christian world leaders and job creators.
Gary Scheer, longtime missionary to Rwanda recently shared this bit of Rwandan wisdom:“Imirimo iyo ibaye myinshi habanza uwo kurya” — “When work is hard, begin with that of eating.”
Gary writes, “This proverb is about the need for preparation, not just food. The idea here is that if you are under-fueled, you’re not going to be able to push through and finish the hard work. Or, if you do manage to push through, the quality will be poor and it will take longer.”
I am so grateful for headmaster Fred and his strong team of teachers. They have maximized this time of lock-down to prepare. Every day they are showing up to work to deepen their skill sets as outstanding educators!
Two times in Scripture we read a similar proverb: Because ants prepare their food in the summer, they thrive in the winter (Proverbs 6:6-8; Proverbs 30:25).
Preparation is so important! Thanks, Anne, for your efforts to prepare so many students around the world. The harvest is happening!
Even though many of us are frustrated in the midst of this pandemic, God may be calling us to take this opportunity to prepare.
How can you better prepare yourself this week for what lies around the corner?