ICTworks

Green Wifi partnered with teams from Illinois Institute of Technology and Inveneo to bring solar-powered Internet connectivity to the EFACAP school in Lascahobas, Haiti. Thanks in large part to funding from an Internet Society Community grant, this team came together at the EFACAP school on December 13 & 14 to establish both a long distance Internet link to the school, and then point-to-multipoint wifi hotspots across the campus.

The backbone tower in Lascahobas, to which the EFACAP school is connected, is one of many set up across the country as part of the Inveneo-led Rural Broadband Initiative to form a high-speed wireless backbone across Haiti. This initiative’s objective is to bring affordable, reliable and sustainable broadband access to 6 regions and 20 un-served population centers across Haiti.

Once the long-distance link was established, the team worked together to establish multiple solar-powered wifi hotspots across the school’s campus. As part of their BATI program, Inveneo is training and certifying Haitian technicians from regions across the country in Internet connectivity setup and related small-business skills. The EFACAP school Internet installation was used as a hands-on training session for five BATI technicians. After connectivity was established, the IIT team met with the school’s teachers, only two of whom had ever used the Internet before, to instruct them in how to get online, use search tools and a server, and finally, to set up email addresses!