Published: September 06, 2008 09:05 pm      

SHSU professor, students send computers to Mexico

Even in the summer months, Sam Houston State University Professor Dr. Charles Heath II is not content to stop educating.

Rather than enjoy his time off at home, Dr. Heath spent the months of June and July in Oaxaca, one of the poorest regions of Mexico, delivering much needed educational resources to schools who could not afford them otherwise.

Last fall, Heath began collaborating with One Laptop Per Child, a charity organization dedicated to providing low cost, rugged laptops to young students in developing countries.

The organization was founded in 2002 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by professor Nicholas Negroponte, who began by donating 20 laptops to children in a remote Cambodian village.

“I was looking for a service project, and I read a piece in the New York Times about One Laptop Per Child,” Heath said. “It sounded like a great cause, so I went with it.”

Heath, a three-time graduate of Tulane University, is now in his second year as a history professor at SHSU, specializing in Latin American history. In pursuing One Laptop Per Child, he chose the focus of his historical research, Mexico, as the place to take his contributions.

“I’ve traveled a lot in Latin America,” Heath said. “I chose Mexico, and especially Oaxaca, because that’s where my main research focus is. It’s one of the poorest regions in the country, so I knew the help would be needed.”

Long before his journey to Mexico to present the laptops to needy schoolchildren, Heath began asking his students and fellow faculty members for help in the project, and received an enthusiastic response.

“We just did an informal fundraiser to see how much help we could get,” Heath said. “Students contributed, other professors contributed, and they got their students to contribute.”

In the end, Heath’s efforts raised $400 to purchase laptops for the program. With those funds, he was able to buy two computers.

“We got a buy one, get one free deal on the laptops,” Heath said. “One Laptop Per Child donated two more, which will go to other areas of the world, but I was determined from the beginning to take the two we bought to Oaxaca.”

The laptops purchased with the funds Heath raised are the result of years of research by One Laptop Per Child. The XO Laptop is the product of Negroponte’s vision of a simple, durable, inexpensive computer that will give children an interactive experience and training in the use of information technology.

“These computers work best for five- and six-year-olds,” Heath said. “They provide interaction for students, and get them used to working on a computer keyboard and using educational software. It really helps to get their minds going.”

Heath selected Escuela Ford Number 195, a school for grades 1-6, in the village of San Pedro Guegorexe in Oaxaca to receive the two laptops. Heath’s fiancé Juana Sanchez is a teacher at the school.

On the school’s graduation day, June 21, Heath presented the director of the facility with the laptops, who received them with overwhelming gratitude.

“They were so happy,” Heath said. “They actually had a technology room at this school, but they were so grateful for something they could use to work specifically with younger students. For people who have very little, it’s always so thrilling to receive anything like this.”

As the new school year is beginning, Heath is considering another year of fundraising for One Laptop Per Child, and is also considering contributing to another nonprofit group, Nothing But Nets, an organization that provides mosquito nets to people in developing countries to prevent the spread of a malaria.

“Whatever we choose to do, we urge the community to get involved,” Heath said. “Anyone who would like to help with either of these causes should feel free to call me here at the SHSU History Department.”