Jhai Foundation's Internet Learning Centers and the Remote IT Village Initiative

What Jhai Does
"Jhai" in the Lao language means "hearts and minds working together." "Jhai Foundation is about reconciliation," says Lee Thorn, its chairman. Initiated by a Lao refugee from American bombing, Bounthanh Phommasathit, and Thorn, who participated in the bombing, Jhai shows how people—even after such a devastating war—can reconcile by working side-by-side. On a per capita basis, Laos is the most bombed place on Earth, and among the poorest. Jhai Foundation works with people in 13 Lao PDR villages on technology, community development, and a new organic, fair trade coffee initiative. In technology, Jhai does two sustainable projects: its Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) and the Remote Village IT project. Each project is run by Lao people themselves and is developed through on-the-ground, rigorous planning with an emphasis on sustainability.

The Internet Learning Centers
In collaboration with Schools Online, Jhai Foundation has established four Internet Learning Centers (ILCs) in high schools since 2000. All but one are in rural areas. Each facility contains 10 new PCs linked in a LAN together with a printer, a scanner, four microphones/headsets, and a digital camera. All facilities are renovated before they are occupied.

Each ILC offers an initial training period of a minimum of 10 weeks, during which it trains 40 students and 40 adults in computer skills, simple Web site design, and English for computer use. Of the adults, Jhai works with the schools to select 2 computer trainers, 2 English teachers, and a manager for the facility.

Each facility is expected to open for for-profit activity after school and on weekends starting immediately after the initial training period. Jhai pays the staff for the first six months to one year of operations. After that, the staff is paid out of profits made by the ILC by private training, Internet calls, e-mail and photos, and business services. In addition to these activities, each school collaborates with a foreign school on an organic agriculture project-based learning exercise starting with the second set of students. Jhai focuses on the two things computers do best—communications and business functions—and provides young people with a way to use these tools to "stay on the farm."

Jhai held a business training and planning session in March 2002 for two people from each ILC. The process included

a full day of directed visits to Internet cafes in the capital city of Vientiane, with lists of business questions to ask developed collectively by the ILC folks (local trainers)

a full day of accounting and business recordkeeping training with an end product of a budget and revenues/expense sheets on EXCEL for each facility (local trainers)

a full day of business resource assessment, skills-building, and planning with three end products: first, a fully developed cost structure for each ILC; second, a six-month work plan towards self-sufficiency for each ILC; and third, a commitment to communicate with each other in the Lao language at least one time per week.

In June 2002, all four ILCs were making a minimum of $385/mo (in a country where the per capita national product is $280/year). ILC leaders predict they will be completely self-sufficient (about $600/month), including a fund for replacement of the computers and maintenance contracts, by October 2002.

"I believe the success of this project has to do with two principles", Thorn says, "first, the leadership of Lao people in its development and implementation; and second, the commitment to sustainability built into each step of its program. Vorasone Dengkayaphichith, Jhai's country coordinator, and his crew are dedicated to listening, and to working carefully and respectfully with children and leaders in each school and community-from initial contracts to staying within reach 24/7...for however long it takes. Jhai is not focused on typical development goals. Jhai is interested in making friendships and serving their friends with their whole selves. This changes the whole dynamic of its relationships and the way Jhai develops each project.

"Jhai Foundation is now in the process of developing the way this project will interact with its efforts in remote villages. We think these two factors—Lao people listening to other Lao people's needs and concerns very, very carefully, and the commitment to sustainability at every step—serve us well in all our endeavors." Jhai's Internet Learning Centers have met with international recognition, winning a 2001 Stockholm Challenge Award in education and being selected to join the Technology Empowerment Network.

The Remote IT Village Initiative
Jhai's Remote IT Village Initiative aims to empower five remote villages, which have no electricity or phones, with a means of communication and the use of simple business tools. Each village will have a Jhai computer connected to the other villages, to their high school-based Internet Learning Centers, and to the Internet. Villagers can use these Jhai computers to communicate in the Lao language by e-mail and by voice with each other and with those outside their villages; for example, with people who buy their products in Vientiane and Jhai staff in the United States. The Jhai computers will also provide them with the opportunity to perform simple business functions like typing documents and creating spreadsheets for budgeting and accounting purposes.

The design team is headed by Lee Felsenstein and assisted by Mark Summer. Some of Lee's computer designs can be found in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC and the Tech Museum in San Jose, California. Their software is LINUX-based and is being localized into the Lao language by Arousal Souphavanh and his team.

The equipment consists of a 486-comparable computer with a keyboard, a roller ball, a LCD screen, and a dot matrix printer in each village. This equipment is hardened and they hope it lasts 10 years. The computer itself has no moving parts.

The equipment will be powered by electricity stored in a car battery charged by a "foot crank," which is essentially a bicycle wheel and pedals hooked to a small generator. The generator is connected to a car battery and the car battery is connected to the computer.

The village computers will be connected to one another by radio local area network (LAN). Each village will connect to one solar-powered repeater station on a nearby ridge. That station will then send the radio signal to a microwave tower nearby and eventually to a server in Vientiane that will connect the villages to the Internet.

Jhai Foundation will provide computer skills training for a group of lower secondary school students in each village. It is envisioned that the best of these students will run the computers as businesses under the control of their respective villages. Jhai, with its local partners, will also provide business training to these students and to the villagers who will act as their mentors. Its training commitment will be as hands-off as possible; however, Jhai expects to be available to the village for a minimum of one year. Jhai will also guarantee the functioning of the systems for that period.

This is a world pilot project. Jhai Foundation expects to document it extensively. The group sees it as stage one of a project to link villagers in remote areas to each other and to people around the world who are interested in Lao villagers' success in meeting their own goals. Jhai, and especially its Lao consultants, will report widely on the experience, first in Lao PDR, and second, elsewhere.

"If this project works in Lao PDR," says Vorasone Dengkayaphichith, Jhai Country Coordinator, "it is possible that other countries will want to follow the Laotian lead."

Volunteers/Staff
As many as 75 volunteers work on Jhai village projects, most virtually. During some months as many as 40 people work on contract—including financial specialists, farmers, computer experts, health officials, MBAs, veterans, development experts, and engineers. Jhai is Lao-run in Laos and works as a virtual consulting firm, staffed mainly by volunteers, in the United States.

Impact
The impacts of the Internet Learning Centers and other Jhai initiatives are clear: according to Thorn, a cumulative investment of roughly $400,000 over three years has produced results worth $2,500,000 in the areas of economic and social capital, education, and health—greatly improving quality of life in the areas where Jhai works.

This is a take-off year for the Jhai Foundation. It hopes to expand the reach of its Internet Learning Centers to more remote rural settings, based on the achievements of the five-village IT initiative. Jhai is committed to taking the village coffee and weaving initiatives to new levels, and is seeking to develop the micro-financing and banking capacity of several villages.

In technology, Jhai Foundation has identified these needs:

Partnerships that lead to funding

Help localizing Linux-based KDE into Lao language

People who are knowledgeable about telecommunications hardware and software

People who are skilled and experienced in sustainable energy, especially foot cranks and solar

People who have experience with Linux in embedded environments, especially those with experience customizing Linux systems to work with very limited hard disk space

The accomplishments of Jhai's projects thus far stem from cooperation among peoples who formerly found themselves on opposing sides in a war. Jhai's core message is that reconciliation is the opposite of war. Working side-by-side, former enemies can make big changes for the poorest among them. Jhai implements state-of-the-art collaborations with big impact without doing "development work" at all. It focuses on relationships. This gets results.