[OLPC India] (no subject)

[Saurabh Adhikari]

Manipur has become the first official state in India to make One Laptop 
per Child its official education strategy to help its children 
leapfrog to the frontiers of learning learning.

The first batch of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) laptops were delivered to the Manipur State on Diwali.




That ends India's isolation from the 3 year long OLPC movement that has already reached 42 countries and Uruguay already has every child in its primary schools learning with the help of OLPC laptops.



Each of us, a couple dozen volunteers that form the OLPC India organization, wants to contribute our bit to this movement in various ways, 
including helping a child or a school or a village or a block achieve it
 by donating, working with policy planners and spreading the word about 
it.



I am also attaching a link from The Economic Times to share with you
 the current thinking in some quarters of the Union Government.




http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Govt-to-rent-out-computers-in-rural-areas-at-Rs-15-a-day/articleshow/6528675.cms


Of course it could have been a lot sooner. Manipur ordered the laptops in March 2009! If OLPC was a business organization, it would have been delivered within a month. It would have had the resources to have a full time manager for local affairs. It would have had all the business processes in place. It would have had an organizational strength to make things happen.

As volunteers, after the order that happened within a week of the proposal submitted to the Government and one presentation to the Government and the local University, because the leaders of the government liked the idea instantly and went about it proactively, just to get the work done required a couple hundred interactions, volunteers had to figure out each step of the negotiation process, volunteers had to pay the collateral for letter of credit as OLPC refused to pay for it, volunteers paid for the extra shipment costs that OLPC refused to pay.

For the volunteers it was a nightmare. As each of them had the experience of organizations looking after the matters that they had to learn ground up. 

Doing what we believe in is far from easy. But it feels great to see things happen.

Thanks and regards, 


________________________________________________________
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siZKBRSqG-U
Watch OLPC at Katha on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n57KOQZ27Iw 


Contribute to OLPC India for Katha and similar schools on Paypal: Account olpc.katha at gmail.com
Voice: http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=46234


Print: http://www.bhaskar.com/2010/05/02/education-to-all-is-a-big-challenge-929577.html
Sincerely,
S Adhikari

 		 	   		  
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