Computers are communication and learning tools today, but more importantly are the communication and learning tool of the future. African communities have very little access to computers — even communities that are doing well economically. The goal of Operation Connect is to provide one of these communities with fully capable computers and the training needed to use them. The operation will focus on creating and furnishing a computer lab and then training teachers in computer skill education so that the project’s effect will last for the rest of the foreseeable future. Secondary goals include connection of African and American communities and cultures as well as immersion of team members into Cameroonian culture.
Buea, Cameroon has been chosen for the site of this computer lab due to the location of project supervisor Genesis Tinshu, president of HINT; the economic, academic, and political conditions of Buea and Cameroon; and the major-city-community centrality of Buea.