[Grassroots-l] Helping Fundacíon Biblioburro in Colombia

[Maria Cristina Chicuen]

Dear One Laptop Per Child staff:


My name is Maria Chicuen and I am a junior at Felix Varela Senior High in
Miami, Florida. I came across OLPC while watching a Nicholas Negroponte's
TED Talk a few days ago and I became really interested in the
organization's mission. I founded a project in January by the name of High
School for Heroes, a community service initiative committed to helping CNN
Heroes with their projects and bringing global awareness to high school
students in Miami-Dade County.I have contributed to Taryn Davis'
organization, the American Widow Project, in February, and this month I
have engaged students in the area in a cell phone drive on behalf of the
organization Medic Mobile. My next project will be in favor of Biblioburro,
a project led by Luis Soriano. Mr. Soriano has created a mobile
library, *Fundación
Biblioburro,* with two donkeys as his form of transportation. He travels to
poverty stricken areas in Colombia atop his donkeys to bring books to the
children in these disadvantaged towns. (
http://video.pbs.org/video/1856249177)

After coming across OLPC, I immediately thought about *Fundación
Biblioburro *and how I could serve as the link between OLPC and Mr.
Soriano's mission. Seeing as though OLPC has already worked with other
Colombian schools, I was wondering if there was any possibility of bringing
OLPC back to Colombia to help *Fundación Biblioburro. *The conditions of
both Mr. Soriano and the children are deplorable. Mr. Soriano does not
count with appropriate transportation to bring the books to the children,
and these do not have a classroom or any adequate facility to attend the
class that Mr. Soriano leads regularly. Many of the books he brings are in
very poor condition and kids do not have the opportunity to take the books
home. By giving these kids the laptops provided by OLPC, they would be able
to access hundreds of electronic books, increasing their literacy and
helping reduce the educational gap in the developing world.

I am in contact with Fundación Biblioburro through Facebook and e-mail and
I would appreciate your collaboration, which would in turn allow me to help
Luis Soriano and the children whom he benefits. If you have any questions,
my e-mail is chicuenm at gmail.com and my cellphone number is 305-812-4432.
Thank you in advance for your kind attention.

Best regards,

Maria Cristina Chicuen
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/grassroots/attachments/20120507/70c7834a/attachment.html>