Dear Students of the World of Friends School and of Berekum,

We are most grateful for our wonderful stay in Berekum, as well as Dr. Nana’s hospitality and generosity!
We hope we have improved your lives a little by providing you with these thirteen computers for your use.  We have done our best to make them sustainable and problem-free, but technology is such that this is sometimes difficult.  We hope that in the coming years, faster internet and new technological advances will allow you all to maintain and improve this computer laboratory so that it may be as useful as possible to you all.

Please note that in the interest of leaving these laptops available for the use of the entire community, please do not leave files on the Desktop, or in any of the other public folders.  They will be backed up to the “Purged” folder in “Storage” if you do so.  The “Storage” folder is available for you to save personal files.  We also recommend you purchase and use a “USB thumb drive” or “USB memory stick” wherever possible to save your personal files.  Unfortunately we were able to leave you only with a phone-line internet connection, but hopefully in the future, the laboratory will be fitted with DSL for increased speed and convenience.

Before you enjoy the many games on these computers—some of them are also very educational—please take the time to teach yourself to type, using TuxTyping, found in Applications à Games.  Once you learn how to type, please proceed to use the applications in the Applications à Office folder.  You will find them very useful for making letters, spreadsheets, and images.  Please also explore the other applications installed on these computers.

A selection of music, movies, and photos are available in the “Media” folder on your Desktop, in case you are interested in the small piece of American and international culture we brought with us.

Perhaps the most valuable resource these computers have to offer can be found in the “Textbooks” folder on your Desktop.  Inside you will find “Wikipedia,” an immense, user-edited encyclopedia.  You will also find many textbooks you can view on your screen involving economics, English, mathematics, and the sciences.

We wish you the best of luck with your new computer laboratory!  We hope it opens many doors of opportunity for you and your families.

Reach Out Ghana 2008

Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut, USA