SOMABOX DEVICE

Schools and community centers in our sub-Saharan African countries struggle in accessing quality education content enough to satisfy their learning and teaching process, due lack of enough internet and libraries capacity to satisfy all the student's and teachers' needs for quality education content. And we all know that most of the education content is currently being uploaded online including search engines to facilitate access to a wider range of quality education materials from all over the world. But it becomes a challenge when one doesn't have internet access in the first place, or even enough printed copies in libraries to also access that quality educational material.

The Somabox is a device manufactured to bridge the gap between quality education material online with disadvantaged schools and community centers with no means to access enough internet connection to have access to those materials.

Somabox device contains all the education content customized according to the need and the nature of any given institution, and it gives access to all those content with no use of the internet. Only having access to an electronic gadget that can access wireless signals, you already have access to the whole content available on the device.

In addition to this Somabox device acts as an access point that can connect up to ten students same time that are within the 200- square meter range of connectivity from where it is placed.

Disadvantaged schools and community centers:

• Students
• Teachers
• Parents in need of home-based leaning

Our organization is composed of a team of board members of individuals with expertise in the tech sector, education sector, and governance. Additionally, we also have a team of developers, project managers, and marketers to support the implementation of this project.

And with all our expertise put together, we were able to develop this device and make changes in schools found in our community, which fueled our courage to even push and spread the impact to the rest of the world.

We are applying to get financial support to manufacture more devices and customize them according to institutions in need, and also to be able to distribute the devices in the disadvantaged communities in need.

Our solution is innovative because it is a device that doesn't require the internet to access online quality education content on the internet.

So it is addressing the challenge of only accessing information online when having internet connectivity.

NO MORE NEED FOR THE INTERNET TO ACCESS CONTENT ONLINE

In the next five years, our objective is to reach out to all Sub-Saharan African nations that are striving to get enough internet connectivity and library capacity to provide equal access to quality education to all of their schools and community centers' instructors and learners.

We will accomplish this by applying for grants to support equal access to quality education in African disadvantaged schools and communities, as well as forming partnerships with institutions and organizations that support education development in Africa, and advocating for underprivileged communities to have equal access to quality educational content.

Our progress is measured differently from one school to another, from one institution to another, and from one country to another. We use an assessment to determine the total number of nursery, primary, and secondary schools, as well as community centers, in a given community, we also evaluate the digital literacy level of learners and instructors, their interest in their current learning process, and, of course, their current grades. After comparing the results before and after the use of Somabox devices, we calculate the percentage improvement and the number of schools that are no longer struggling with access to all relevant quality education content required, in comparison to the total number of schools and community centers that were struggling at the start. Our aim is always different from one community to another.

Lack of relevant needed education materials and support can cause you to struggle to access the quality education content required to keep up with the current fast-evolving world and communities around you, and thus lower your interest in your learning process, leading to school dropout or even lagging behind with inadequate skills unable to contribute to the development of your community in the most relevant updated style. As a result, any assistance that begins with providing you with all relevant updated quality education content and empowering instructors/teachers support around you may help you keep up with the ever-changing environment, allowing you to not only enhance your skills but also contribute to the development of your community.

We used WLAN technology and software development technologies to make the content on the device appear as a website that you navigate through to find the relevant content you are looking for.

We already conducted a pilot phase from the pilot phase feedback is where we were able to know that our device can connect up to 10 people at the same time, if it goes beyond the network becomes unstable to some of the additional users. So we base it on our pilot phase feedbacks.

Soma Foundation Rwanda (SFR's) objective is to develop a responsible and caring community that accepts diversity and empowers everyone to learn and achieve their best at SFR, fostering a community centered on SFR's shared values of excellence, community, equity, belonging, openness, integrity, and mutual respect.

Follow this google drive link to have access to our model

https://drive.google.com/file/...

We intend to begin selling Somabox devices to institutions and other content providers so that they can make their content available to their clients without the use of the internet as well, and we intend to partner with each of these organizations as their distributor for the initial Somabox technology, which will continue to be monitored by us while allowing other private institutions or even individuals/parents in need for their children, and bring all the revenue back to supporting our cause which is to keep supporting disadvantaged schools and communities.

And of course, applying for grants to support our cause.

So far, because the organization is still in its early stages, we have been functioning with the help of grants and funding from supportive institutions, but we have sold three Somabox devices and have been able to build seven more with the earnings.

So, while we are not quite where we want to be, we do know that it works based on our near-past experiences.