Between high school and college I took a year off. I decided to spend 6 months in South Africa to help people help themselves out of poverty.

I did this by writing a curriculum that covered basic computer office skills. We got about 15 laptops donated from the states and began our mobile lab. Our first 2 class rounds were people that we hand picked to be teachers in later classes.

The next round of classes launched with the teachers that we just trained running the show (we still attended all of these sessions just to help out). The classes were self sustainable (teachers got paid a small amount from students, and the students were then committed to the program).

Jason (the guy who hooked me up with the downtown office) was a part of my team.

Moral of the story: Be nice and help people.