Camara

Camara is an International organisation dedicated to using technology to improve education and livelihood skills in disadvantaged communities around the world.
The name ‘Camara’ comes from the Bantu dialect of West Africa and means ‘teacher’ or ‘one who teaches with experience’ .
The ANANSE NTONTAN («spider’s web») symbol come from the adinkra symbols found in Ghana and historically used by the Asante tribe on cloth, walls and in pottery.
Founded nine years ago in Dublin, Ireland the organisation has built a proven model of ‘education delivery’ that is both sustainable and highly scalable. 700,000 children in poor communities have been made digitally literate by Camara over this period.
To do this, Camara has:
* provided eLearning Centres to over 2,500 schools in Africa, Ireland and the Caribbean
* installed nearly 48,000 computers
* trained over 12,000 teachers on how to use the technology for learning purposes
Camara does it in the social enterprise way: «A social economy enterprise operates like a business, produces goods and services for the market but manages and redirects it’s surpluses in pursuit of social and environmental goals.» (Defining the Social Economy, by Fiona Salkie; Senior Policy Analyst, WD Headquarters, Edmonton.)
Camara in the USA started two years ago and functions primarily with the help of volunteers. They depend on donated high quality used computers. Which is then wiped clean of any previous owners information and then loaded with their educational software and shipped to the region in need.
They have partnered with Dell, Google, HP, Intel, IBM,
and Microsoft. They have about ten awards and my favorite is the ICT Technology Award for the Best Use of a Technology in Education and Training in 2013.
They’re currently in the best chicken and egg scenario. They need computers. They also need volunteers. They need both! A perfect scenario would be for both to walk in the door together!
They are registered with Volunteer Match. They have several needs. Please check it out!