Contributions
One of basic ideas of the RYE School was to get kids to contribute to their education by paying in the form of recycled garbage. The RYE School will be built on the island of Tablas, and there is just not enough recyclable garbage to collect!
We want the kids to invest in their education. Collecting garbage was but one option. Here are the other options we are looking at.
Planting Mangroves
There is plenty of work to be done on Project Mangrove in terms of manual labor. If the kids work for a weekend and help us to plant some mangroves, then that is good enough for a terms worth of fees.
Community cleanup
A lot of the town centers in the area are very messy due to neglect from the local community. The kids will help us do a community cleanup and that will suffice for one terms worth of fees.
Potential Site for the RYE School
An area of land in the barangay (village) of Sugod had been identified as a potential site for the RYE School. The site is about 200 m2 and will cost about 60,000 pesos (~ $US 1,300). The site was chosen for two reasons.
Sun
Tablas is a mountainous area and not all parts of it receive a lot of sun. Sogud receives approximately 11 hour of direct sunlight every day.
Internet
The Philippines has a product called SMART Bro, which is a small USB device that plugs into your computer. SMART Bro will provide an Internet Service wherever there is cell phone access.
Sogud has a direct line of site with a nearby cell phone tower, so the Internet access should be excellent.
Choice of Computers
The RYE School will be using some ultra-lightweight laptops. The laptops weigh about 1kg and consume about 75W of electricity, which should work very well with the solar power. These are the computers we will be using.
Security is an issue on the island – desperate people do desperate things. The lightweight nature of the laptops will allow them to be easily transported to a secure location when they are not in use.
Temporary Location
We want to start teaching children before the school is built. We will be setting up a bamboo structure with an awning acting as a cover - basically a big tent. We will use this tent as a temporary location until the school is built.