{"id":1612,"date":"2010-07-12T20:31:39","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T19:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TravelWithPaulie.com\/blog\/?p=354"},"modified":"2011-11-24T14:34:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-24T14:34:30","slug":"pcs-migrant-children-story-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/pcs-migrant-children-story-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"PCs for Migrant Children: The story so far"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the time of writing, it&#8217;s been a full 2 weeks since I launched my <a href=\"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/2010\/06\/pcs-for-migrant-children-campaig\/\">PCs for migrant children campaign<\/a> on my blog.\u00a0 It&#8217;s been a very interesting time to say the least and I&#8217;ve learned quite a bit about fundraising, collecting money online, getting the word out, and learning more about the people that I know and realising the efforts that many of them will go to to donate and spread the word for causes they believe in. It&#8217;s been brilliant!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/2010\/06\/pcs-for-migrant-children-campaig\/\">not too late to donate<\/a>, and no contribution is too small.\u00a0 Every little counts! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>The total amount of monies raised to date (12th July 2010) is as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a3678\/\u00a3650 (gross\/net) through Paypal; at current exchange rates ~\u0e3f31,500<\/li>\n<li>\u00a560,000 to my Japan bank account; at current exchange rates ~\u0e3f21,900<\/li>\n<li>[Updated] \u00a3250 to my UK bank account; at current exchange rates ~\u0e3f12,300<\/li>\n<li>\u0e3f3,000 pledge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s a total of ~\u0e3f68,700.\u00a0 Granted, I&#8217;ll lose a certain percentage of that when I actually transfer and convert the money to Thai Baht in the end, but it is a seriously fantastic effort on the part of everyone who either donated, or spread the word to their friends.<\/p>\n<p>Where I&#8217;m living right now, Mae Sot, I can get a decent, second hand computer for between \u0e3f5,000 and \u0e3f6,000 depending on slight variations on the specifications.\u00a0 That means with your help, I can source about 10~12 computers and place them in schools which until now have never had computers installed!<\/p>\n<p><strong>How amazing is that?!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>My Dilemma<\/h2>\n<p>The simple dilemma is this: Do I take the money that I&#8217;ve raised so far and run out and buy PCs with it, or, do I wait?\u00a0 Why would I wait?\u00a0 Well on top of the financial donations I have had some offers of hardware donations and I could potentially stretch this money further if I dedicate it to the import of free, 2nd-hand hardware from abroad.\u00a0 There are 1 or 2 potential offers that would totally outpace what I could do with the money alone, but the problem I am faced with is the limitation of time.\u00a0 I am here for a limited period only, perhaps only another 4 weeks and I need to <em>get<\/em> the hardware delivered here, <em>prepare<\/em> the machines, <em>install<\/em> the computers on-site, and then run through the training necessary to leave the computers in the hands of the schools&#8217; teachers and students.<\/p>\n<p>Also, all the time spent here waiting for hardware to arrive could be spent training teachers and students if I had computers already installed.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a difficult choice to make since I want to both maximise my time spent here, but at the same time maximise the money that has been donated to this cause to deliver the largest possible impact for these kids.<\/p>\n<p>As I type this, I think I may mix it up and just buy one or two computers and begin the process of installing them in the first school.\u00a0 That way, when the time comes when other computers arrive, I&#8217;ll have hopefully sussed out a methodology for installation and training &#8211; this is my first time to do something like this, so there&#8217;s learning on my part as well \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>It may turn out to not be the best choice, but it&#8217;ll hopefully not be a bad one in the end.<\/p>\n<h2>Feedback<\/h2>\n<p>If you have any comments or suggestions, or you have experience with importing computers and hardware within southeast Asia and particularly Thailand, I&#8217;d love to hear from you.\u00a0 Please feel free to comment below, or write to me directly using the <a href=\"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/get-in-touch\/\">contact form available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If this is your first time to become aware of this project, please visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/2010\/06\/pcs-for-migrant-children-campaig\/\">main campaign page<\/a> for more details and a link to a donation website if you feel you would like to contribute.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it&#8217;s never too late to donate to this cause all the while I&#8217;m still in Thailand and if you&#8217;re reading this in July\/August 2010, I&#8217;m still here.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all for your support!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the time of writing, it&#8217;s been a full 2 weeks since I launched my PCs for migrant children campaign on my blog.  It&#8217;s been a very interesting time to say the least and I&#8217;ve learned quite a bit about fundraising, collecting money online, getting the word out, and learning more about the people that I know and realising the efforts that many of them will go to to donate and spread the word for causes they believe in. It&#8217;s been brilliant!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[542,543,329,335,351,544,364,370,371,378,548],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cat-volunteering","tag-burmese","tag-computers","tag-education","tag-fundraise","tag-it","tag-karen","tag-mae-sot","tag-migrant-children","tag-migrant-schools","tag-pcs","tag-thailand"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PCs for Migrant Children: The story so far - Plog - Paulie&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/pcs-migrant-children-story-so-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PCs for Migrant Children: The story so far - Plog - Paulie&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the time of writing, it&#039;s been a full 2 weeks since I launched my PCs for migrant children campaign on my blog. 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