Mai Lee lightly wraps her fingers around the computer mouse as if she’s holding an egg that’s about to break. She wiggles the mouse and laughs. The cursor on the screen seems to have a mind of its own. A teacher comes over to help.

It is the 13-year-old’s first try at using a computer and she couldn’t be more thrilled. After waiting over an hour for a turn at one of her school’s 11 computers, she pulled a wooden chair up to a computer station and began working. Cows mooed outside the open windows as Mai put a clip art rabbit into a word processing document.

“I’m just trying to type, to see if I can type,” said Mai, an eighth grader at Phonsavad Secondary School in Phonsavad, a Hmong village located on a small island a few hours north of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. “I feel very glad because I touched the computer today and I really want to learn more.”

For Mai and the hundreds living in this agricultural village, the computer lab is a source of community pride and hope made possible through World Links, a non-profit organization that provides teachers and students with computer hardware, software and training.

“I’m happy the children are learning about modern tools,” said Sangchanh Phomsavath, a shop owner and mother of six, including two who attend Phonsavad. “I went to look at the lab through the door, but I was afraid to go inside – maybe it was dangerous or I didn’t have the authority to go in.”

The trepidation toward technology is understandable given that Phonsavad doesn’t have running water or electricity – ironic given electricity is one of Laos’ top export and a hydroelectric dam is less than 50 miles from the village. Indeed, many of the islands near Phonsavad were created because of the dam.

Nevertheless, the school’s computers run off 12 solar-powered batteries, which take two days to charge if it is sunny and last for two days before recharging is necessary. In the field behind the computer lab, a broken wood fence keeps nearby cows from trampling the solar cell and a Lao Telecom satellite dish.

A community affair

Over 50 people from the community gathered to watch the satellite dish arrive one hot afternoon in January. The small tower traveled from Vientiane for three hours by truck, three hours by boat and then a couple kilometers by truck up a dirt path. The mood was festive as Lao Telecom workers set about hooking up the dish.

“I was very happy and proud. This was the first time I saw a satellite dish,” said Lylae Syyiaxang, Phonsavad Secondary School’s vice principal. “I thought, ‘Wow, we are the first school to have this satellite and this technology. My village will be famous and my school, too.’”

But all was not going as planned. The satellite would not work. After some discussion, Syyiaxang and other villagers pinpointed the problem: the gods in the area were not happy. They had not been asked for permission to install a satellite dish.

So they sent a teacher to buy a gift that would please the gods.

Beer.

They poured six bottles around the base of the satellite dish and prayed: “This satellite is not just for us, it is for everyone in the community. Please help us.”

Confidence was low as the Lao Telecom workers tried the dish again. And then…cheers from the crowd as the satellite signal came through. The Internet connection is slow by any standard but this does not concern many people.

“We didn’t have technology at all at this school. I wanted students and teachers to have e-mail, especially, for communicating to anywhere in the world,” said Syyiaxang. Once he figures it out, Syyiaxang plans to e-mail his son, a university student in the north studying computer science, as well as a fellow teacher in the province.

–Laura Elizabeth Pohl for World Links

Khoumtay Soutthavilay can’t forget a simple photograph of colleagues smiling before a soccer match. That’s because the photo launched him into the computer era just last year.

“It took me 40 or 50 minutes to upload the photograph,” said Soutthavilay, principal of Sisattanak Secondary School, located in the outskirts of Vientiane, Laos. “It was very difficult. I was so happy afterward.”

So happy, in fact, that the usually-reserved Soutthavilay sprinted down the hall to the computer lab to see if the picture was really on the web.

“It was so funny. I laughed but saw he was really interested in learning,” said Leuanglith Souvanlasy, the computer lab manager and a math teacher at Sisattanak.

Soutthavilay’s digital “a-ha!” moment is one that has been repeated over and over at 10 Lao schools in the past year thanks to the World Links ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) SchoolNet Project. The program has been so successful that the Lao Ministry of Education plans to adopt the World Links model and expand it nationwide, pending proper funding.

World Links provides computer and technology training to teachers, who then train students and other teachers. The program helps young people in underdeveloped South East Asian countries develop the skills they need to get jobs in a knowledge-based economy.

An urgent need

Laos, which is about the size of Italy and is sandwiched between Thailand to the west and Vietnam to the east, is one of the poorest countries in Asia. More than 75% of the population survives on less than $2 a day. The estimated gross domestic product per capita was $2,100 in 2007.

“There is an urgent need for technology in Laos,” said Ly Foung, director general of the department of secondary education in the Ministry of Education. “Most people still don’t know how to use computers. Most schools can’t afford them. If you don’t know how to use a computer then life is difficult.”

This point was driven home in 2002 to Bounsom Soudthivong, principal of Salakham Secondary School in Vientiane. His best student won a scholarship to the University of Laos. The student later informed Soudthivong that he struggled to reach his full potential because he had no knowledge of computers.

Soudthivong called a community meeting to discuss how they could bring computers to the school. After more meetings and financial negotiations with a computer company, Soudthivong brought 17 computers to Salakham in 2003. But there was still one problem.

“We didn’t have ideas about what to do. The teachers learned about the computers from wherever they could find information, but we wanted real training,” said Soudthivong. “That is why we needed World Links.”

Since World Links’ inception in Laos in 2007, nearly 200 teachers and 5,000 middle and high school students have received computer training. For many students and teachers, training was the first time they saw a computer.

Chatting online

It is the first week of summer break and a dozen students and teachers are working on the 22 PCs in Sisattanak Secondary School’s computer lab. Arisone Thipparavanh, 16, is slowly tapping at a keyboard. Every few seconds she stares at the computer screen to make sure she has properly spelled out her words. She is chatting with an online friend she has never met in the real world. Like many students here, Arisone has quickly taken to computers. She never touched one before three months ago.

“I have learned about a new technology and now I have access to any place in the world,” said Arisone. “I can chat with friends online. I can search for information and for lessons and use the computer to type my homework.”

This is exactly what principal Soutthavilay likes to hear. The school actually received its first computers three years ago as a donation from a South Korean group. But only a few teachers knew how to use the computers. No students ever used them.

Now, 13 of the school’s 39 teachers have been trained on the computers. Students learn about the technology in 10^th and 11^th grade. Demand to enroll in Sisattanak is up and interest in studying has increased among current students, according to Soutthavilay. He attributes both developments to the presence of the computer lab, the only computer facility in the school’s vicinity.

“One year ago World Links came and implemented its program. Our school has gained credibility, students want to come here and parents want to send their students here,” said Soutthavilay. “Now I need to be creative and think not only of the school but of the community as well.”

–Laura Elizabeth Pohl for World Links