Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Switched On provides computer and English training to the underprivileged to help them ultimately to get better-paid jobs. e.g. Burmese refugees can earn about 70p/day in a chicken factory as they are only qualified for menial work. They can't put enough food on the table, never mind educate their children. With English or basic computer skills they will be able to earn several times this and escape poverty. In the cultures where we work, those who get jobs share their income with their families, so the whole family benefits. Switched On thus empowers the very poor to help themselves.

FAQ Contents

This fund raising exercise is looking to improve and continue running two centres - amongst Burmese refugees and slum children. Switched On's temporary funding for these is about to become unavailable, so we desperately need to find sponsors so these enterprises of mercy can continue. This money pays the wages only of Indian staff.

These costs are based on actual amounts based on Switched On's experience of running these centres.

Slum children

Target is 100 sponsored slum children and 40 sponsored Burmese refugees.

Average cost per student £10.

Notes

• UK gift aid contributions have been factored to go towards the objectives of the charity, probably enhancing the Switched On training courses.
• Exchange rate assumed 0.88 €/£, average over Feb-Jul 09, 0.65 US$/£, average Jan-Sep 09
• Others will also be benefiting from the training centres, whom we cannot create sponsorship arrangements with at this time. e.g. some Burmese refugees also study Hindi on these premises as the Indian government has donated a Hindi teacher because we are providing premises. Youth in the Slum get to study the computer course in afternoons.

If you would like a detailed breakdown sooner and you are genuinely interested in sponsoring a student then we will happily provide it be email. Click gere to email us and state that you would like more detailed cost breakdown figures. Please understand that we do not wish to provide this information publicly on the Internet, as it may prejudice certain negotiations for running these centres. If we can get better deals, we will, and use any spare money to increase our empowerment of the needy.

FAQ Contents

Sponsorship is for a place on a computer and/or English training programme. Some places will be occupied by the same student for a few years, but in many instances the student will only be able to study for a year or two because of hard family circumstances.

You may wish to consider whether to continue with the sponsorship programme on an annual basis, or when your student comes to the end of their course. However, if you continue to support the place(s), new students may get the benefit of the training. This way, you will develop "relationships" with a number of needy students over the years, whose whole families will benefit substantially from your support.

FAQ Contents

These Burmese refugees are from the Chin province in western Burma. Allegedly, The Burmese Government/military is oppressing this mainly Christian state with forced labour, rape, famine, torture and religious persecution

Aspects of their persecution are documented at:

1. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/28/burmaindia-end-abuses-chin-state - Human rights watch, Burma/India: End Abuses in Chin State
2. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15020 - Report covering Chin province persecution, The Irrawady.

FAQ Contents

The centre is in a school run by a charity (NGO) named after it's Swiss founder, the Esther Education Trust, and this trust oversees the school locally to high standards. Many of the children are from the Daalit, casteless people group that has been regarded as fit only for the most menial work. The Indian government officially revoked the prejudice of the Caste system but it is still pervasive in the culture. We are doing "our bit" to erode this unacceptable mindset by qualifying the pupils to excel in jobs and higher education.

FAQ Contents

Our experience has shown that even Basic IT skills can make a massive difference to income, with relatively little training. The use of computers are proliferating in Indian cities, older models even appearing on tills in some smallish grocery stores.

We can also use the computers, in time, to teach other vocational skills without the need for a highly skilled teacher to be present. This can actually cut training costs.

FAQ Contents

The middle and upper class speak English in India, and is the main language for computers, and valuable information on the Internet and in Higher Education facilities. Hence, English helps the students get on in their world, and again gives access to higher income.

The Burmese do not speak any locally understood language, so English is a great option for them.

FAQ Contents

At £1/day in city slums, families cannot always put two meals on the table. For £2 a day they can easily do this, and have money left aside to educate their children properly.

FAQ Contents

There are a number of ways to answer this:

1. India is a vast country of 1.1 billion people (1/6th of the world's population), of whom only a fraction are benefiting from economic growth. The majority are in poverty, and in fact the situation is getting worse for them, because their income cannot keep pace with growing food prices. The World Bank reckons that 50 per cent of the world's underweight children live in India. As the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer - because they are separated from the opportunities by digital and language divides which Switched On is geared up to rectify.
2. Because there is a growing economy in the cities, there are actually jobs available for the poor to take. Hence, you can get more "bang for the buck" (donations) in training the poor in India than in other countries.
3. India is a starting point for Switched On, but it is an excellent choice! It is a good place to develop the Switched On model (training materials, IT systems, etc) because there are skilled local people who can help develop it at low cost compared to the developed world. Once the Switched On model has matured and is ready to be "exported", we want to introduce it to other developing nations in partnership with other organisations.
4. We have been invited by the Indian government to provide consultancy for some rural computer training centres, on the basis of our successes in running such a centre in a slum. This will enable us access to key resources to make our centres truly effective. e.g. a university link will enable us to get official accreditation for our courses. We would not have these kind of links in another country. These connections will help us develop very effective training centres.
5. The communities we are focused on have suffered prejudice, including Christian Burmese refugees who have fled terrible religious persecution, and children regarded as worthless because of their low caste. We are compelled to help out of compassion, to try to love them as we love ourselves. It's not a simple matter of national boundaries, but of mistreated sections of society.

FAQ Contents

Switched On has run a centre that teaches basic computer skills to youth and children inside a charitable school run in a slum. We set up the system and though so far we have been able to have only arm's-length management of the teacher we appointed, the results from teaching the youth has been impressive as the following chart shows.

The fact 40% of students got significantly better paid work than otherwise expected clearly shows the massive potential of this approach. We expect to achieve even better results when the Newboulds are in India and able to oversee/mentor more closely.

Switched On also set up a computer system for an poor school in Thailand in 2005.

FAQ Contents

Some typical jobs achieved are:

We estimate the students get three to six times the salary they could otherwise expect. e.g.

• Santosh now earns about £2.75 or 3€/day whereas his father, as a farm labourer, would typically earn less than £1 (1€)/day.
• Rinki, who got a grant to open a beauty parlour partly with the help of her computer qualification, could expect about £1.75 or 1.90€ a day, whereas before she earned 75p or 80¢ per day as a local tele-sales assistant.

FAQ Contents

We're glad you asked that! You will receive occasional brief messages from your student(s), such as a statement about the weather in India and a question about the weather where you live. The subject will depend on what they have been studying. You may respond to this if you have time. This may prompt a further response and you may continue the dialogue if you wish. We currently plan to send these communications once a term, or less frequently if you prefer.

You should find this a most rewarding experience. Any messages you send will also motivate your students towards more determined learning of English and computers.

All messages will go via the Switched On web site, so your real email address will never be known by the student or teacher.

The teachers will also check that each message going back and forth is comprehensible and suitable, so you will not be asked by your student(s) to give money, get engaged etc! (Sorry if that's a disappointment.)

FAQ Contents

You will get a brief annual report from the teacher summarising your students' progress.

You will also hopefully see your students' English improve over time through the messages they send. However, they will also get help from the teacher in understanding your messages and responding so there is no need to be disappointed if their improvement is not strongly noticable, as Switched On will be monitoring the teaching to ensure it is effective.

FAQ Contents

Switched On are a UK registered charity run by a group of experienced and well respected trustees. Click here for more: About Switched On. Many of us are motivated by our Christian faith to help the underprivileged, though we will serve people from any faith (or lack of it).

In addition, Richard and Merja Newbould are going to India to develop the work further in November 2009, for three or more years. Richard is already working full-time developing the work of Switched On in Europe.

FAQ Contents

Yes. For example:

• Influential members of the Indian government (including the Prime Minister!) have invited Switched On to provide in-depth consultancy for some computer training centres they are establishing in rural India (they are not able to support the other centres we run directly).
• Switched On has been given a substantial grant by the Sainsbury's Family Trust to help with set-up costs for the Burmese Refugee training centre.
• The Esther Education Trust in India has invited Switched On to run a computer centre for slum children in one of its schools, based on experience working with us.
• We are in close cooperation with Fida, a Finnish Development Agency, with a view to helping develop their training centres in India.
• We are collaborating with two indigenous Indian networks involved in social action, with a view to setting up an NGO (Non-Government Organisation) in India to manage the growing training centre project.
• Switched On has the generous support of many anonymous individuals financially and in the provision of time, skills and energy.

FAQ Contents

• To run a hundred financially self-sustainable vocational training centres amongst the poor in India.
• Inspire/help other organisations to do the same in other countries.
• Each training centre will empower hundreds or thousands in poverty to cross digital and language divides to earn a decent crust for their families. Switched On will thus provide hope through empowerment.
• Our centres will provide ethical training as part of its courses, in areas such as integrity and attitude to work.
• The Switched On centres will be run in a reliable, professional, "Switched-on" way - to exemplify what it teaches.
• It will always have a heart for the marginalised and downtrodden.

Being financially sustainable is a key goal (or as close as we can get) because it means we will be able to introduce new centres that will not require ongoing donations (or at least at a low level).

FAQ Contents

The Switched On centres will be developed and run with the focus and professionalism of a successful franchise business. We plan to develop our existing centres to run smoothly and predictably according to carefully designed and optimised processes that will deliver great service to the students. This is made possible with the assistance of computer-based training and tested structured training programmes. Ultimately, it must be very effective in enabling them to find work. Then communities will be happy to pay for training. We will also search for complementary services we can offer to earn extra money for these centres (e.g. Net cafe).

We will reduce our costs and deliver quality training using proven blended learning approaches (see Teaching Methodology below). This will require hundreds of hours of our own training material to be videoed and computerised. We will also create and refine hundreds of peer group exercises.

We are also rather smart with reducing computer and software costs (see Computer & Software Strategy below). They are less than 25% of typical computer centres.

This is undoubtedly a very stretching target and will take years to achieve. But a big vision is worthy of great commitment. Could you come and lend your skills for a time?

FAQ Contents

What we mean by blended learning is structured lessons combining video of a virtual teacher/class, computer exercises, peer-group exercises and a teaching facilitator to deliver training. Teaching quality can go up because we can afford a good virtual teacher since the videos will be used thousands of times over. Conversely, the teaching facilitator only needs to be a couple of levels ahead of the students.

FAQ Contents

Firstly, it is not completely innovative and approaches such as this are being employed successfully elsewhere. However, courses need to be developed that work for this section of the population.

Merja and Richard ran a short course in an Indian village, and found the approach very effective. See a couple of clips of video here, that we showed to a class to test how they would follow along with the virtual class in the video.

We have close connection with a new Indian government funded university that is planning to accredit our courses so they will be recognised across the country, bettering job and further education opportunities.

We have also taken advice from English teaching experts, who have advised the approach is pedagogically sound.

The Newboulds have been trained in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and should be joined by a fully qualified teacher.

Pure computer-based training (without a facilitator) is proving highly effective for learning computer skills. e.g. One Indian IT consultancy company has produced a 30 hour course for those with no previous experience of computers to learn the basics. It works very well, even in "uneducated" villages.

In the developed world, over the last few years many Universities have accepted computer-based training as of equal value to traditional courses.

FAQ Contents

In a way it is. We can use new tools appearing on computers and the Internet to teach computer and language skills.

The English training videos are like video tutorials you can find on YouTube. Internet chat can help develop language skills and blogging can be turned into a group writing exercise that will be undertaken with great attention to detail.

We can also use other free open source software very effectively. e.g. Sound recording and playback software to practice pronunciation, and word processor revision features to do peer writing correction.

Yes, the virtual classroom videos have a similar "glueing" effect to reality TV programmes! The students are drawn right into the classroom experience though it's virtual.

In addition, we are using a "classroom management system" to deliver the course materials. This same system, called Moodle, is also being used by the Open University. Best of all, the software is free.

There are many possibilities to take advantage of new technology to enhance English learning, whilst also developing familiarity with computers and having lots of fun.

FAQ Contents

We use Open Source (free software) where we can. If you're not familiar, then rest assured there is lots of high quality software available for free that is very similar to paid-for versions. Try www.OpenOffice.org for an example that's very similar to Microsoft Office.

We also use proven "Thin Client" approaches, where low-cost terminals sit on desks, running off a shared server. This kind of system has been adopted on a huge scale by the Brazilian government, slashing the education IT costs.

We will also have some Microsoft systems available for people to get used to that system too, but the Open Source software can teach all the principles of computers and applications.

FAQ Contents

Switched On has a team of developers and teachers who offer time free of charge to work on the training system. In April 09, sixteen developers and teachers got together to work on some key aspects, and had a lot of fun. Could you offer your skills to help out? The banner advert for this event tried to capture some of the power of what we can do together. The team website - http://code.google.com/p/so-class2/

FAQ Contents