On Monday, my friend Chris with Heart of Africa made the trip down to Columbus from Fort Wayne (3 hours) to demonstrate a SmartBox to a group of business men and women at my BNI meeting early Tuesday morning.
Two weeks ago when I had asked him if he was willing to make the drive, Chris didn't hesitate. But Monday afternoon I started wondering if it was really worth his time to make a trip just to sit through a 90 minute meeting where he would get to show off the SmartBox before and after for just a few minutes.
The SmartBox is a computer lab in a box - an ingenious configuration of 20 Chromebooks linked to a 1 TB hard drive via a self-contained router. The hard drive hosts a full K through 12 curriculum, maps, Bible studies, typing programs, and even full books.
A single SmartBox could revolutionize the education of kids in the typical wooden bench in a tin roof shack village school in the developing world.
It certainly sounds like a good idea.
And my experience with Chris at the BNI meeting reminded me that there really is something to "seeing is believing". He and the Box were both very well received.
To see it in person really gets people dreaming of the potential and wanting to be a part of such an inspired idea.
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Sherri and Roger (left) were the last to leave the meeting after extended conversation with Chris (right) |
The BNI group and other individuals are working to fund a SmartBox for a pioneering educator named Samuel Yeboah and his Beacon School in Ghana. (Each SmartBox costs $8,000 to produce.) God willing, we will be taking it with us two weeks from now and delivering it in person.
If you are interested in jumping on board with this project, I have set up a fundraising site at https://givebutter.com/smartbox . We would be so grateful for your support!
We are currently 67% of the way to our goal.
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