NEWS ARCHIVE - 2001, 1999/2000, 2002, 2003
PARTNERING WITH UNESCO IN VARAMIN: As reported in the last issue of the SAF Newsletter, UNESCO has agreed to provide support to the Science and Arts Foundation for the Schoolnet project in Varamin. This support is provided as part of UNESCO's YOUTHINFO activities in Iran, and will be used to support the Dr. Hesabi High School to serve as an Internet node, providing Internet connection for other schools in the city of Varamin. News about this innovative partnership, the first of its kind in Iran, was also featured in UNESCO's Communications Materials.
We hope that SAF's partnership with UNESCO will serve as a model for similar partnerships in Iran and the rest of the developing world.
CORPORATE AND ACADEMIC SUPPORT OF SAF IRAN: France Telecom and the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) have generously agreed to provide a 512 kbps/128 kbps link for SAF's Schoolnet project. These generous donations will help support a much faster connection for schools in Iran, reduce traffic and improve the quality of our services to schools.
Pars Online has donated six unlimited dialup accounts to SAF Iran. These accounts will provide Internet access for the following schools: Allame Helli High School, Emam Hosein High School, Zeynab High School, Ershad (Varamin) High School, Farzanegan Guidance School, and Kherad High School. As a follow-up effort, Pars Online has generously agreed to provide Farzanegan High School with a dedicated leased line, for faster Internet connection.
Many thanks go to France Telecom, IPM and Pars Online for their support of SAF.
SAF IRAN PROVIDES INTERNET ACCESS AT NEW SITES: SAF Iran has provided Shohaday-e Kargar High School, located in Afsarieh, a deprived area in the south of Tehran, with Internet access. The school, which is supported by Amal Community-based Charity organization, is a special school providing education to children whose parents are blue-collar workers. The school can boast an 85-95% university admittance rate and several medals in academic Olympiad events. Take a look at their site.
SAF Iran has also provided Shahid Bahonar Teachers' Training Center with Internet connection. The SAF technical support team in Iran installed Windows and other necessary software, which will allow them to easily access the Internet.
SAF welcomes Shohaday-e Kargar and Shahid Bahonar Teacher's Training Center to its network at Schoolnet.
Last month, as reported in the November issue of the SAF Newsletter, Babol's Schoolnet program began operation. Here's an illustrated story, written by Mr. Akbar Zahiri, a member of the SAF team in Iran. Read about how it all happened.
FOURTH SCHOOLNET CONFERENCE: SAF will host the Fourth Schoolnet Conference in Tehran's 17th District on February 28, 2002. Hedayat and Alzahra High Schools - both supported by SAF and located in the 17th District of Tehran - are working in partnership with SAF's School Information Center at Sharif University of Technology and to organize the event. Special training workshops for teachers and administrators will follow the conference. As we have reported previously, SAF has been successful in developing a model program in District 17 and has served as a catalyst for the local Department of Education to provide Internet access to other schools in the district. We hope initiatives like this one will serve as a model for replication throughout the country. For more information on the event take a look here.
ENGLISH EDUCATION CLASSES AT ALZAHRA HIGH SCHOOL: SAF team member, Mr. Akbar Zahiri, is holding English Language classes for graduates at Alzahra High School. The graduates work closely with SAF to support IT education at the school. Limited English proficiency is a key barrier to Internet use and IT training and a serious problem in Iran. Ms. Tytti Nahi and Kate Greenstock, SAF team members, have also been actively involved as teachers in these classes. This training is part of a larger training program, provided to graduates at Alzahra High School and other SAF supported schools, which includes among other trainings, workshops on Windows, Internet, Email, Photoshop, Html, and 3dsMax.
SETTING UP THE ZAHEDAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTER: Several members of the Science and Arts Foundation team traveled to Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan Province to conduct an initial assessment for setting up an IT Center in the city. While Sistan and Baluchestan ranks last out of all 28 provinces in Iran on human development indicators, Zahedan holds great promise for the establishment of the IT Center. Both of the major universities in the city, Sistan and Baluchestan University and the Medical Sciences University, are well equipped with several computer labs and reliable Internet connections. At the same time, many of the residents of this city and province do not have access to the Internet, especially youth in deprived areas. The visit was hosted by the Office of the Governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, Office on Women and Youth and the Women's Cultural Association of Sistan and Baluchestan (a very active NGO in the Province).
Meetings were held with several key stakeholders, all of whom were very receptive to SAF's plans to set up an IT center in Zahedan and promised to provide support and to collaborate with SAF to ensure the project's success. The City Council of Zahedan, in partnership with the Municipality of Zahedan, and the Governor's Office has generously provided space for the Center. The Governor's office has also agreed to support the salary of a full time Center Administrator. This is the first SAF project designed to take Internet technology to young people in a community setting and it will be the first project of its kind in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.
NEW SOFTWARE FROM THE TEAM AT THE FARSIWEB PROJECT: The team members at the FarsiWeb Project have made available for free new software for Palm held devices that converts the Jalali and Gregorian calendars. You can download the software for free here.
Note: The executable may only run on Compaq iPAQs running Windows CE 3.0. If you need it for some older versions of Windows CE or different hardware, you should download the Microsoft embedded Visual Tools to build it yourself.
SAF USA NOROOZ FUNDRAISING GALA: In conjunction with International Children's Book Council and the Children's Book Council of Iran, SAF USA will be hosting a Norooz celebration on March 2, 2002 at 6:00 pm. The event will take place at the Los Angeles Hilton and the proceeds of the fundraising will go to charity causes for Iranian youth. The event's Master of Ceremonies will be Shahrzad Ardalan and the guests of honor are Mr. Kamran Elahian, Professor Abbas Edalat and Ms. Sogol Mafi. The event will also include:
We ask you to support our efforts to improve the quality of education for Iranian youth by attending this event and particularly by purchasing a table in the name of your company, family or along with friends. Tickets for the event cost $100 and the cost of purchasing a table is $1,000. For more information or to purchase tickets, please email us or call (404) 308-2000.
COMPUTER COLLECTION DRIVE FOR YOUTH IN THE US: SAF is embarking on a program in cooperation with a number of agencies to provide educational support for disadvantaged children in the US, especially those from ethnic minorities. Under the auspices of this program, SAF USA will be collecting personal computers and laptops to donate to children who exhibit potential and interest. Training in the use of computers and software will also be provided. We are asking you and your friends to provide support to this innovative program, by donating your used computers and laptops. The computers have to be in working condition, Pentium 133 or above, and running Windows 98 at a minimum. Please send all computers to:
Science and Arts Foundation
PMB 201
4780 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Suite A
Atlanta, GA 30338-5505 USA
For further information, please email us.
REGISTERING SAF IN THE NETHERLANDS: We are pleased to announce that the process for registering SAF as a NGO in the Netherlands has begun. SAF is planning to host an inauguration event at The Hague in the Spring of 2002. With the registration of SAF in the Netherlands, we hope to be able to receive funds from both private and public sources in support of our efforts to provide access to technology and the Internet to youth in the developing world. For further information on SAF in the Netherlands, please contact Mr. Mehdi Meghdadi.
UNESCO TO SUPPORT SAF'S VARAMIN SCHOOLNET PROJECT: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced that it will fund SAF's Varamin Schoolnet project due to be launched in December 2001. The Varamin Schoolnet project will also establish the Dr. Hesabi High School as an Internet 'node' in the province, providing connectivity services for other model state high schools. Through this project, over 5,000 school children from model state high schools in underprivileged areas will have their lives enhanced through the donation of modern well-equipped computer sites with access to the Internet. The Dr. Hesabi High School for Boys will be provided with two servers, two workstations, one router and five telephone lines linked to the School Information Center based at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran.
DONATION OF PRINTERS TO SAF FROM XEROX (IRAN): Through the generosity of Xerox (Iran), SAF recently took delivery of twenty printers for use in model state schools supported by the charity. The machines were delivered in the middle of November and have already been installed in the following schools: Hedayat, Alborz, Roshd 16, Allameh Helli, Zeynab, Alzahra, Dr. Hesabi, Ashoura, Farzanegan (middle school), Ibn Sina (middle school). In addition, printers have also been donated to the Iranian Society for Popular Science, the History of Children's Literature in Iran Group, and Tehran Schoolnet.
SAF FRANCE DONATIONS: SAF France has secured the donation of 40 PCs and 5 laptops from the French Bank Societe Generale. The machines will be sent to Iran and installed in SAF supported schools by the end of December.
SAF would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at UNESCO, Xerox Iran, and Societe Generale for their most generous support and donations.
SAF IRAN ACTIVITIES: November has been a busy month for SAF Iran in Babol, where the following schools were equipped with modern computers with access to the Internet: Sobhan and Taleghan high school (boys), Noshirvan technical school (boys), Noshirvan Fallah high school (girls), Pooyesh and Pooya high school (girls), Shahid Beheshti (boys), Farzanegan Efaf and Fahima high school (girls).
Each school was supplied with one Pentium III 733 server (40 GB hard, 256 MB RAM, 40X CD-ROM), ten workstations (Celeron 733, 20 GB hard, 256 MB RAM, 40X CD-ROM), one HP 1200 LaserJet printer, one HP 3400 scanner, one external 56K Modem and one 16 port Acer or D-Link Hub. In addition, each computer room has been given 11 tables and 21 chairs.
In addition to donating and installing this equipment, SAF also held a number of training workshops for teachers, school children, principals and administrators.
IRAN NGO MOVEMENT: SAF UK hosted a talk by SAF Advisory Board member Ms. Sussan Tahmasebi on Tuesday November 6 at Imperial College London. Ms Tahmasebi, a leading Iranian researcher and writer on NGOs and charities, including women's organizations in the Middle East, spoke about the NGO movement in Iran.
SAF IRAN NOT-FOR-PROFIT STATUS: Following a two year registration period, SAF Iran was awarded not-for-profit status by the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance in Tehran at the end of November. SAF Iran's registration number is 13467, dated November 22, 2001.
SCHOOL FOR THE HEARING AND SPEECH IMPAIRED BROUGHT ONLINE: October saw a landmark in the development of SAF - a school for hearing and speech impaired girls joined Schoolnet. The Nezam Mafi Technical School is located in Tehran and joins Schoolnet through the generous support of local philanthropists. The school's computer site has five modern workstations, a server, scanner, printer, as well as chairs and tables. Along with providing the school with this equipment, SAF has also held computer training workshops, focused on topics such as using the Internet, email, networking, designing homepages and setting up systems, for students, teachers and administrators who work at the school. School children have already helped design their own web page that can be seen by accessing it here.
THIRD SCHOOL COMPUTER ASSEMBLY LINE INAUGURATED: Following the successful establishment of practical training sessions in computer assembly at Hedayat High School and Gole-e-yas Technical School, Alzahra High School became SAF's third school to initiate this training program when school children started to construct machines for SAF projects in Babol. The school children at Alzahra High School have already attended courses run by SAF outlining software programs and have also been given hardware assembly demonstrations. In total, they will assemble over fifty machines for other SAF-supported school children in Babol.
TWO SCHOOLS NEAR QOM NOW ONLINE: Through the generosity of a local benefactor, SAF has started to support the Imam-Khomeini High School for Boys, located in a deprived part of Hassan Abad, near Qom. SAF has donated to the school one server, five modern workstations, a printer and scanner. SAF has also donated equipment to the Fadak High School for Girls in Hassan Abad. Both schools are set to come online in early November.
NEW EQUIPMENT FOR FARZANEGAN HIGH SCHOOL, TEHRAN: In October, SAF donated to Farzanegan High School three new PCs, a printer, CD writer and new network equipment (two hubs and switching gear). This new equipment and a new network configuration will allow the school to make greater and more efficient use of the computers already donated to it by SAF.
INTENSIVE COMPUTER TRAINING PROGRAMS: Throughout October, members of SAF were busy providing administrators, principals and teachers in Broujerd with key skills in Windows, Internet, Word, email, networking and the design of school homepages. The classes were very intensive, running from 7:30 AM to 8:30 PM over a period of four consecutive days.
During October, computer training courses in key skills were also held regularly in Kashan for administrators, principals and school children. Over the course of the summer months, SAF trained over 850 students and 100 teachers in the province.
In October, the Principal and his assistants at Hedayat High School, Tehran, were given a training course by members of SAF that included classes focused on hardware skills and software applications. A similar course was held for administrators, the principal and children of Farzanegan High School, Tehran.
BABOL AND HEDAYAT PROJECTS: Through the generosity of a local benefactor, SAF has now purchased the equipment that will be used in the forthcoming project in Babol. The equipment purchased includes seven servers, forty two modern workstations and one router. At the time of writing, members of SAF are also working to connect Hedayat High School to Sharif University with a wireless link. With this connection, Hedayat High School will become an Internet node for Schools in District 17, Tehran, and will, as a result, provide a more efficient and reliable service to SAF supported schools there.
IRAN SHINES IN ROBOCUP 2001: A full report of Iranian participation and performance at the annual Robocup competitions, which was supported by SAF, can be found here.
THE FARSIWEB GROUP: The FarsiWeb Project Group held its first national seminar on September 12, 2001, hosted by the High Council of Informatics of Iran. During the seminar, the Group presented the first draft of their research paper titled, "Persian Information Interchange and Display, Based on Unicode". This work is the first formal outcome of more than two years of research on the FarsiWeb Project, which has received significant support from SAF.
The importance of the Group's work can be seen in the fact that, if implemented by Iranian vendors and organizations, the standard will be the central point of a new IT infrastructure in the country. The FarsiWeb project is now waiting for public comments on the text of the draft, and will then aim to ensure approval as the national standard by the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran.
Further information and the text of the draft are available on the Farsiweb homepage.
A BUSY MONTH FOR SAF IRAN: September has been a busy month for SAF Iran with a number of important new and 'upgrade' projects undertaken.
Early in the month, the Fatemeh Girls' High School in Tehran was given a donation of a modern well-equipped computer site with access to the Internet. The School has also become a member of the Life-Link Network and has been brought online (with six dial-up connections and one leased line) through the generous support of Pars Online.
A modern well-equipped computer site, consisting of 6 new computers, a scanner, printer and digital camera, was donated to Al-Zahra Women's University's Persian Language and Literature Department in Dehe Vanak, Tehran. Over the course of the next two months, SAF will deliver a number of computer training courses to the University, and will also connect the donated computers to the Internet. If you would like to support this work, please go to SAF's Support page.
TRAINING FOR SCHOOLNET PRINCIPALS: On September 15, Schoolnet Principals met at Sharif University of Technology to receive an update regarding recent progress within the network. Reports included updates regarding Schoolnet activities, the 8th IEARN Annual Conference in Cape Town at which SAF made a presentation to international delegates, and current IEARN projects being undertaken in SAF supported schools.
Principals were also given a presentation by Professor Abbas Edalat, Chairman of SAF, on the importance of the Internet for the youth and the work SAF has planned in the coming months.
Such training sessions have become an essential element in keeping all Schoolnet Principals up-to-date with developments and in helping to form professional links between colleagues in SAF supported schools.
UPGRADED EQUIPMENT: Kashan University has had its Internet access improved through the installation of a dish antenna donated by SAF. This development will help to improve the services offered to Kashan Schoolnet and will facilitate the continued growth of the network in the province.
SAF has also helped to upgrade the Farzanegan Girls' High School LAN with the donation of a new hub and a 2501 Cisco router, which has been donated by a generous expatriate benefactor.
SAF SWEDEN: SAF Sweden was formally established this month, registered charity number 802410-7867. Please see our Contact and Support pages for details.
COMPUTER TRAINING FOR SCHOOL GRADUATES FROM ALZAHRA GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL: SAF's commitment to training high school graduates with practical computer skills they can use to further SAF's work in other model state schools as well as their own careers was seen recently when over 100 graduated students from Alzahra Girls' High School began their SAF training program. SAF trainers have focused classes on developing practical skills in Windows, Internet, Email and Word. Students have also been taught how to design and maintain web pages and will receive English language tutoring in addition to their computer training. These training initiatives are free of charge and have already proven very popular with students. SAF will be expanding this training scheme to other schools and provinces in the coming months. To see pictures of the training classes, please go here nd click on to the Alzahra Girls' High School link.
COMPUTER TRAINING IN KASHAN: In the July News section, it was reported that SAF training programs had been initiated in Narjes Girls', Mohtashami Boys' and Ketabchi Girls' Schools. Training has subsequently progressed rapidly and over 600 schoolchildren and 80 teachers and administrators have now received comprehensive training in Windows and Office 2000. Training has also been given in the most effective ways in which to use the Internet.
THE PRACTICAL RESULTS OF TRAINING PROGRAMS: In the July News section, it was also reported that SAF had established a second practical training program in computer assembly at Gole-yas Girls' Technical School in Javadieh, Tehran. It can now be reported that during late August, SAF's technical team traveled to Hafezi High School in Broujerd and installed 12 computers which had been assembled by girls at the Gole-yas School. The next stage of this project will see the establishment of a school Information Center at Azad University. Reports written by the Girls at Gole-yas Technical School regarding their experiences in assembling computers, can be found here.
HEDAYAT SCHOOL PROJECTS ONLINE: Over 50 school projects carried out by students from Hedayat High School have now been put online and can be viewed by going here.
For other reports written by SAF students and trainers, please access the Schoolnet Projects page.
Reports include how to use MS-Word 2000, Learning Windows'98 and Learning Visual Basic.
SAF PRESENTATION At THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: On August 2, Dr. Yahya Tabesh (Director of the Computing Center at Sharif University of Technology Tehran and Director of SAF Iran) gave a presentation to the Iranian Graduate Student Association titled "Empowering the Youth in Iran through information and communication technologies". Dr. Tabesh gave an overview of the state of the Internet in Iran, with an emphasis on the connectivity of Universities and schools throughout the country. He then outlined the role of SAF in spreading information technology and the additional uses it could have in areas such as e-commerce and software development.
PRESENTATION AT THE ARABIC INTERNET NAMES CONSORTIUM WORKSHOP, CAIRO: Mr Roozbeh Pournader (SAF Iran) will deliver a presentation titled "To unify or not to unify: extended Arabic letters in Internet names" to the Arabic Internet Names Consortium Workshop, September 17-18, 2001. The paper will focus on the issues raised by different characteristics and usage patterns of languages (particularly Persian) using Arabic script in domain names. Mr Pournader will also be suggesting the extent to which a "unified system" should be adopted.
HISTORIC PARTICIPATION OF IRANIAN TEACHERS AT IEARN'S INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: A team of seven Iranian teachers and educators, sponsored by SAF, attended the 8th Annual IEARN International Teachers' Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, July 8-13. The Conference, titled "Education in the Internet Age", attracted 1600 delegates from 72 countries. This gathering also marked the first time teachers from Iran have ever attended an international teachers conference; their historic participation, announced at the opening ceremony was greeted with prolonged applause. In addition to attending a wide range of conference presentations and workshops, the Iranian team delivered their own presentation on Friday 13th of July entitled, 'Empowering the Youth of Iran - the work of the Science and Arts Foundation', which was well received by teachers and educators from five different continents.
During the conference, the Iranian team met and exchanged views with teachers from many different countries and in particular in conjunction with US teachers launched the Good Hopes Project with a view to developing scientific and Internet collaborative work between teachers and students of both countries.
Such was the impact of the Iranian team that they were asked by the organisers to arrange and deliver the final moments of the conference. This was carried out by two Iranian and two US teachers with a poem in Farsi and some brief, yet moving observations about the importance of collaborative work between teachers and school students around the world.
In the words of Mr. Ed Gragert, a leading IEARN coordinator, the conference was 'an incredible event and the participation by the Iranian teachers made it very special.'
A full report on the conference can be read here.
SAF'S SECOND COMPUTER ASSEMBLY LINE: Following its first successful Computer Assembly Line at Hedayat School, SAF has established its second Computer Assembly Line at Gole_yas Girls Technical School in Javadieh, Tehran. Initially, computers assembled at the school will be sent to new schools supported by SAF. The first school to benefit from a delivery of assembled computers will be Hafezi High School in Broujerd, thanks to support from a generous local benefactor.
Photographs of the girls from Gole-yas Technical School assembling SAF computers can be seen here.
MORE COMPUTER TRAINING IN KASHAN: Over 40 teachers and 200 school students have now received computer training from SAF at Narjes Girls' School, Mohtashami Boys's School and Ketabchi Girls' School. Training has covered Windows 2000 and Office 2000 and will continue over the course of the summer.
BABOL SCHOOLNET PROJECT: Following a visit of SAF administrators to Babol in June, and the support of a generous expatriate benefactor, the following schools in the city are being provided with well equipped computer sites with access to the Internet - Pooyesh and Pooya Girls' Technical School; Sobhan and Talaqani Boys' High School; Fallah Noushirvan Girls' High School; Efaf Girls' High School; Imam Khomeini's Technical School for Boys; Fallah Noushirvan's Technical School for Boys.
Photographs of the visit, which also included a presentation about SAF can be seen here.
SAF VIDEO PRESENTATION NOW ONLINE: You can now see an informational video on SAF by going here. This has been made possible through the efforts of Mr. Iraj Azimzadeh. SAF warmly welcomes your comments about it.
SAF-FRANCE ESTABLISHED: We would like to welcome SAF-France to the growing network of branches around the world promoting the work of the Foundation. Those interested in offering their support to SAF-France can find contact information for SAF-France here, and bank account information, here.
COMPUTER ASSEMBLY LINE ESTABLISHED: As part of their practical training and school curriculum, school children from Hedayat High School assembled 115 PCs in April and May using hardware bought and donated by SAF. In the presence of Mr Esmail Ghorbani, Professor Abbas Edalat, Dr. Yahya Tabesh and Mr. Akbar Zahiri, school children from grades 9 and 10 assembled a PC (Pentium 600) in 13 minutes. The computers assembled at Hedayat High School will be given to SAF projects in Tehran, Kashan, Gorgan and Tabriz. Photos of the students assembling the PCs can be viewed here.
SAF PRESENTATION TO UNESCO: On May 31, Professor Abbas Edalat, Chairman of SAF, gave a keynote speech about the work of the Foundation to the Executive Board of UNESCO in Paris. Professor Edalat's presentation, titled, "Empowering the Youth of the Developing World: Using the Revolutionary Information and Communications Technology", can be downloaded from his homepage.
Following this presentation, a number of UNESCO delegations have asked SAF for help in developing programs in their countries.
SAF IN LORESTAN: In May, an SAF delegation visited Boroujerd in Lorestan province, Iran. Plans are now being made to develop a School Information Center in the province, with the help of local philanthropists and other donors. The first project in the area will see Hafezi Boys' High School (1,000 students) connected to the Internet through a donation of a new well-equipped computer site. It is planned that, in the near future, between 8-9 other schools will join the network in Boroujerd, with the overall goal being to connect all schools in the city to the network. Boroujerd Azad University will act as the host of the School Information Center.
SAF IN KASHAN: Following the establishment of the Kashan Schoolnet, a number of schools in Kashan were also equipped and connected to the Internet. These include the Mohtashami Boys' High School, Narjes Girls' High School, and Ketabchi Girls' High School.
SAF IN GORGAN: The village of Shahkooh in Gorgan was connected to the Internet in May, making it one of the few villages in Iran with network connectivity.
MORE SCHOOLS GO ONLINE IN GREATER TEHRAN: More schools and other educational organizations have been given modern computer equipment linked to the Internet by SAF. Schools recently given these facilities include the Dar-ol-elm Girls' High School (Robat Karim); Fadak Girls' High School (8th District of Tehran); Fatemah Girls' School (12th District of Tehran); Fatemieh Girls' High School (Islamshahr); Hossein Boys' High School (18th District of Tehran); Sheik Koleini Boy's High School (Islamshahr); Shohadat High School; and Somayyeh High School.
SAF recently extended its work with orphanages by providing the Shahid Varamini orphanage with modern computers and Internet access. The orphanage, located near Shahr-e-rey, looks after 30 boys who both live and study there.
TRAINING WORKSHOPS CONTINUE: SAF's commitment to training school children, teachers and administrators in a wide range of computer skills continues. Over the last twelve weeks, SAF has focused much of this work on teachers in District 17, Tehran. SAF has also continued to work on providing training pamphlets to the public in Iran and the most recent one, which provides a basic course on how to use Yahoo email, has been produced in Farsi and can be found here.
THIRD SCHOOLNET MEETING: On Thursday May 17 2001, Schoolnet held its third meeting at Alborz High School. Dr. Yahya Tabesh presented awards to the 3 winners of the best web design competition who came from Alzahra, Alborz and Hedayat high schools.
NEW SAF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER: Mr. John Minto joined SAF as Administrative Manager in May. John comes to SAF with many years of experience working in educational charities in Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and the UK. If you have any feedback you would like to give SAF, either about specific projects or any other aspects of the Foundation's work, you can contact John by emailing him - science_arts@yahoo.co.uk.
SAF LAUNCHES SCHOOLNET IRAN INITIATIVE to connect schools in 10 cities across Iran. For information about projects you can support in specific cities, please look at our Projects page.
GUILAN SCHOOLNET ESTABLISHED: The following schools in Guilan (North of Iran) have been given well-equipped computer sites and Internet access: Baghcheban (School for the deaf and hard of hearing); Beheshti; Farabi; Farzanegan Boys' School; Farzanegan Girls' School (all five in Rasht); Hoda (Roudsar); Onsouri (Kelachi); Somieh (Kelachi); and Tohid (Lahijan).
Some of these school computer sites were opened during a visit in late April, by Mr. Esmail Ghorbani, Professor Abbas Edalat (Chairman, SAF), Dr. Yahya Tabesh (Director of SAF, Iran) and Mr. Reza Mahjurian (Tehran Schoolnet). Schools given computers and which will be given access to the Internet in the near future include Emam Jafar-e-Saadegh; Shahadat; and Somieh (all in Rasht).
Guilan Schoolnet (http://guilan.schoolnet.ir) was also launched during the visit. This local Schoolnet is hosted by Guilan University (Rasht), where a seminar on Empowering the Youth in Iran took place in April, attracting over 400 participants.
The rapid development of this program is the result of efforts made by a key expatriate benefactor who has generously supported SAF's work in the province.
KASHAN SCHOOLNET ESTABLISHED: On April 17, Kashan Schoolnet was launched bringing online a number of schools in the province. Kashan Schoolnet is hosted by Kashan University and can be accessed at http://kashan.schoolnet.ir.
HAPPY IRANIAN NEW YEAR: For our last newsletter in the Iranian year 1379, we would like to share with you a greeting card sent to SAF by students of Bent Al Hoda Girls High School in Roudsar (Guilan), which was equipped and connected to the Internet less than two months ago. SAF wishes all of you a very happy new year ahead, with much health, happiness, and success.
HEDAYAT HIGH SCHOOL AWARDED LIFE-LINK CERTIFICATE: Life-Link Friendship-Schools is an independent Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting contacts and cooperation among young people around the world, through active participation in shared projects which are vital for our times, e.g. the environment, human rights, conflict resolution and constructive collaboration. 124 Schools in 37 countries have participated in 359 peace actions so far. Three SAF supported schools are among these, and recently Hedayat High School received a certificate for "well concluded Caring and Sharing Peace Actions during year 2000." These actions have included projects on herbal medicine, water pollution, and sexually transmitted diseases (AIDS) in Iran.
The certificates can be viewed here: (1), (2), (3).
Participants included Hedayat students Hamed Nafisi, Mohammad Havivnejad, Mehdi Vakilpour, Aminreza Ramazani, working under the direction of their teacher, Mr. Alireza Mozafari.
SAF RANKS FIRST IN PAYVAND'S POLL, asking respondents which charity they will contribute to in the year 2001. SAF received 41% of all votes cast, among 4 charities. View poll results here.
SAF MEETING IN PARIS: SAF's founder Prof. Abbas Edalat gave a talk on "Empowering the youth in Iran: Two years of SAF activities" on Saturday March 17 in Paris.
BOOK CONTEST IN SCHOOLNET: Thanks to the efforts of SAF's Tehran team, especially Messrs. Tabesh, Iranfard, Mahjouryan, and Moeeniyan, SCHOOLNET has initiated a book review forum and contest for all students of member schools (view the site with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Unicode UTF-8 encoding).
SCHOOLNET DIALIN POOL EXPANDS: The School Information Center at Sharif University, serving schools in the greater Tehran area with Internet connections and technical support, has recently added 10 more dialin phone lines for easier access to its services.
SCHOOLNET WORKSHOPS CONTINUE: Schoolnet Administrators Akbar Zahiri and Nasim Tayebi continued their series of educational workshops on computers and the Internet for teachers, admins, and students of Alzahra. Roshd (girls), Shahid Rajaee, Fatemieh, Ershad, Zeynab, and Farzanegan Islamshahr high schools, as well as orphanages in the Tehran area.
STUDENT PROJECTS NOW ONLINE: A new web page has been set up so that students and administrators of Schoolnet can post their projects and research reports for use by others.
It currently includes reports and tutorials on Windows 98, Visual Basic, Iranian geography, Persian proverbs, and other topics.
STUDENTS MEET SAF ADMINS: A group of students, teachers, and principals of 8 Tehran area schools met on Feb. 13, 2001 with SAF's director in Iran, Yahya Tabesh, and Schoolnet Administrator Akbar Zahiri at Sharif University of Technology, during which various issues of interest were discussed.
Schools who took part in the meeting were:
SAF CELEBRATES TWO YEARS OF ACTIVITY: Equipping and connecting over 30 schools during the past 2 years has been SAF's main achievement. However, this is just the beginning of SAF's campaign for Iran. Plans for next year call for expanding SAF's presence throughout Iran, and establishing School Information Centers and school networks in Ahvaz, Arak, Kashan, Qazvin, Sanandaj, Shiraz, Rasht, Tabriz, and Yazd. Details on these projects will be forthcoming soon, stay tuned.
A summary of SAF's two years of activities:
These figures are only for schools. Additionally, SAF has provided computer equipment and/or Internet connection to
Among other important news of the past year:
SAF has set up a fully equipped School Information Center at Sharif University in Tehran and is setting up three similar centers in Tabriz, Rasht and Kashan. These centers provide computer and Internet support for schools in their regions. This includes provision of educational web sites, organization of teachers training, setting up school homepages, and organizing collaborative school projects. The Tehran Schoolnet has so far organized numerous computer/Internet training courses for school teachers in Tehran.
SAF organizes a web design competition between school students in Tehran every six months. In the first competition in Autumn 2000, 5 groups of children were awarded the top prizes in a gathering at Roshd High School in Naazi-Abad.
SAF was promoted in two IT seminars for all Tehran Model State Schools and all Tehran Teachers' Training Colleges in May 2000.
In August 2000, teachers from Hedayat High School (near Abu Zar Square, Tehran), one of SAF's first projects, joined the International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN), a network of school children and teachers in 90 countries across the world. I*EARN organizes Internet-based school collaborative projects on the international scale. I*EARN has facilitated educational and development projects since 1988, pioneering an "interactive" approach to using educational technology by encouraging students to actively contribute to, rather than just passively "surf" the Internet. A team of six teachers and SAF activists will participate in IEARN's annual conference in Cape Town in July 2001.
SAF has lent active support to the FARSIWEB Project at Sharif University of Technology, a project with the primary aim of pushing the Iranian and Persian language community to use the Unicode standard, the widely accepted 16-bit character set standard.
And last but not least, SAF has been set up as a charity in the UK, US and Iran, thanks to the tireless efforts of its many volunteers.
SCHOOLNET EXPANDS TO ORPHANAGES: Four schools in Tehran, dedicated to education of orphans, have been provided with computer labs and Internet connectivity. These are:
Workshops on computers and Internet are being held for students of these schools by SAF volunteers, and their web pages will soon be ready. Progress is fast, the children are very enthusiastic and immensely eager to learn.
Activities and coordination between SCHOOLNET and the 35 welfare organizations in Tehran which take care of orphans are being carried out under the supervision of Ms. Nasim Tayebi.
FARSIWEB STATUS REPORT: SAF is currently supporting the FARSIWEB project at Sharif University of Technology, a project with the primary aim of pushing the Iranian and Persian language community to use the Unicode standard, the widely accepted 16-bit character set standard. Development and promotion of the Persian Unicode standard is a critical first step towards preservation and continued vitality of the Persian language in all electronic media, as the common cultural heritage of Persian speakers worldwide. The project is also supported by the Iranian High Council of Informatics.
More information on Unicode can be found at http://www.unicode.org.
FARSIWEB's home on the Internet is at http://developer.sharif.ac.ir/farsiweb.
A status report on the project can be read here (use Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or above; the encoding, if you need to set it, is UTF-8).
Questions and comments can be addressed to Roozbeh Pournader or the FARSIWEB team.
If you are thinking of helping, you may also wish to join the Persian Computing mailing list at persiancomputing@sharif.ac.ir.
NEW SCHOOL COMES ONLINE: On January 9, Farzanegan Middle School for girls joined the SCHOOLNET family, bringing the total number of connected schools in Tehran and nearby towns to 25.
The newly commissioned facilities can be viewed here.
The school's new homepage can be accessed here.
Farzanegan is very active in providing numerous classes both on computer hardware and software to its students, with 8 full time computer teachers. Photos of the hardware class can be viewed here.
TEHRAN MEDICAL SCHOOL COMPUTER/INTERNET LABS: Through assistance provided by SAF, and co-funding donations by the Jephcott Charitable Trust ($14,200), and the Reuters Foundation ($11,600), two fully equipped computer labs with Internet access have been set up at Tehran Medical School. The project was completed in December 2000. The provided equipment includes:
These have been used to equip two computer rooms, each with six workstations, a laser printer, and a scanner. The rooms are exclusively for use by medical students, and are most often used for Internet access. Each student is allowed to use the systems for one hour a day, and usage centers mainly around accessing up-to-date scientific information on the web.
Five more of the donated systems (including 4 from the above list) are installed in the medical library and are used both by students and academic staff for Internet access.
Although the actually Internet connectivity has been established for less than a month, the workstations are already fully booked.
Prior to these efforts, medical students at the school had no Internet connectivity. In the words of Dr. Shahin Merat who led the project in Tehran, "most of the users, especially female students, have first seen the Internet in these centers ... I personally believe that if it were not for the donations by SAF these students would have never had the opportunity to use the Internet for at least another two years. Furthermore the SAF donations and the Internet access have promoted the networking of all the medical school and even the university".
The two computer rooms are currently open till 5 pm, although arrangements are being made to keep the service available up to 8 pm. There are plans to hold Internet classes for students, and to use the router/access server provided by SAF to operate 16 dial-in lines for remote access, and to increase the connection bandwidth.
Tehran Medical School, the oldest medical school in Iran, currently has over 4,000 students. These students, especially those studying general medicine, do not have any Internet access other than that made possible by SAF's donations.
SCHOOLNET WORKSHOPS: Introductory workshops on Internet use and computing continued to be held for school teachers in a number of schools by SAF volunteers Akbar Zahiri and Nasim Tayebi. An example is a class on homepage design and Internet use, conducted at Farzanegan Middle School for girls by Akbar Zahiri. Photos of this class can be viewed here.
SCHOOLNET schools now have a fixed time set aside for these workshops, in addition to their own Internet and computer classes.
PAYVAND.COM's POLL: SAF is featured on an online poll on http://www.payvand.com, a top Iranian portal, and one of the oldest and most respected sources of Iranian information on the web. Check it out, pledge to support SAF, and vote! The poll can also be accessed at http://www.payvand.com/poll/.
NEW VOLUNTEERS JOIN SAF: SAF and SCHOOLNET would like to warmly welcome two new members:
Ms. Nasim Tayebi (Tehran) who, among other things, will coordinate activities and classes between SCHOOLNET and the schools and orphanages under the supervision of the Iranian state welfare organization (Behzisti).
Dr. Ali R. Rezaei (New York), who is an Assistant Professor of Education at the City University of New York, with 5 years of experience in teaching the ins and outs of e-learning to school teachers.
Dr. Rezaei has kindly volunteered to help SAF in directing teachers and school children in Iran to access information in areas that they work in. He would be happy to receive questions from teachers and students on how and where to access information on the web, where to obtain free software in various subjects, ... . He would also like to mobilize his numerous students to give a hand to Iranian teachers and school children in e-learning.
SAF feels very fortunate to have dedicated volunteers like Ms. Tayebi and Dr. Rezaei on its staff. Welcome!
SAF also wishes to invite all those interested in lending a helping hand as volunteers, to drop us a line at info@science-arts.org.