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[Wayan Vota]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to a modern education, is donating 5,000 XO laptops to the United Nations Relief and Workers Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugee children in Gaza.

This donation represents OLPC’s renewed commitment to reaching children living under extraordinarily difficult circumstances such as in the midst of war and poverty and in unacceptable conditions of extreme and abhorrent deprivation.

“Given the recent damage done to schools in what is already a very poor and very isolated part of the world, it is more important than ever to give these Palestinian children access to rugged, connected laptops that will open up worlds of knowledge and hope to each of them,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child. “It is our hope that this small but important donation will spur others to act now.”

Giving children in Gaza connected laptops that can be powered by the sun will provide them an opportunity to connect beyond their confined environment and end their isolation.

UNRWA runs close to 800 schools for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and is uniquely equipped to deploy and implement laptops.

About One Laptop per Child

One Laptop per Child (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and others from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are inexpensive enough to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. XO laptops are rugged, solar-powered, and connect to other XO’s, and the Internet.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090121/20090121005992.html?.v=1

[Wayan Vota]

I wonder how effective this donation will be considering the state of schools in Gaza:

"A total of 53 installations were damaged or destroyed including 37 schools (6 of which are being used as emergency shelters), six health centres, and two warehouses. "

http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/statements/gaza_crisis/GazaUpdate/19jan09.html

[davewa]

Well, with the proper use of mesh networking, the kids will no longer have to physically gather into a small area in order to attend a class.

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