More resources for students

Felix has been a Wikipedian since 2012. Born and raised in Ghana, he discovered the project a few years ago. It is during a meeting with fellow Wikimedians that Felix first heard about Kiwix. The possibilities it offers immediately struck a chord.

Having seen what Kiwix could offer, ideas on how to use the platform to improve education kept rushing. A few months later, Felix and a fellow Ghanaian were at work in front of 800 students at the Wa Senior High Technical School, in Northern Ghana. Having downloaded Kiwix and the full English Wikipedia and Wiktionary on a portable hard drive, they were quick to transfer it to the school’s computer lab. There are enough machines, but it is the internet access that is lacking.

The experience is a success: Fewer than 10 percent of students had ever accessed Wikipedia before the training took place. Now half the students say the new resource has influenced their studies. Felix is now convinced that the project can scale in most parts of the country and founded the Open Foundation West Africa. He has already started approaching the education secretariat to discuss ways to surge and deploy Kiwix. Felix is confident about the future. He is already thinking of new features such as a solar-powered or a battery run kit to enable devices for mass deployments. «These kids are ready to learn!»