<div>Hello All,</div><div><br></div><div>Good to see OLPC deployment in Rajasthan.</div><div><br></div><div>I thought i will update the group on our effort in Chennai, India. Our effort with OLPC is on a small scale - we use 10 OLPCs at Deepam ( <a href="http://www.deepam.org.in" target="_blank">www.deepam.org.in</a> ), to teach 5th grade students at a school in Chennai. We use netbooks / laptops at our other centres.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We have been using the OLPCs since January and feedback from the students ( for whom, OLPC is their 1st computer exposure ) has been very encouraging.</div><div><br></div><div>Some pics..</div><div><br>
</div><a href="http://blog.deepam.org.in/2010/02/10-new-olpcs-donated-to-deepam.html" target="_blank">http://blog.deepam.org.in/2010/02/10-new-olpcs-donated-to-deepam.html</a><div><a href="http://blog.deepam.org.in/2010/02/10-new-olpcs-donated-to-deepam.html" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://blog.deepam.org.in/2009/12/new-deepam-centre-vrs.html" target="_blank">http://blog.deepam.org.in/2009/12/new-deepam-centre-vrs.html</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><b>About Deepam :</b></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://blog.deepam.org.in/2009/12/new-deepam-centre-vrs.html" target="_blank"></a><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><div style="color:rgb(80, 0, 80)">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">Deepam is an NGO Working to empower lesser-privileged children with access to information and opportunity through Education, in Chennai, India. The children we work with often come from deeply disadvantaged backgrounds.Through mentorship & coaching, we <span><span>transfer</span></span> four sets of practical skills to these children: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"></p></div><ol><li style="margin-left:15px"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">Computer and internet usage;</span></li>
<div style="color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><li style="margin-left:15px"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">Language and communication skills, particularly in English; </span></li>
</div><div style="color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><li style="margin-left:15px"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">Current and social affairs awareness; </span></li>
</div><li style="margin-left:15px"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">Personality development. </span></li></ol><div style="color:rgb(80, 0, 80)">
<span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small">The first of these - computers, and the internet - lies at the core of our effort, and is used to drive the other three. These four skills, we believe, will give them a base of tools and help the children understand, identify, and access opportunity for themselves.</span></div>
</span><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><div style="color:rgb(80, 0, 80)"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;font-size:small"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<span><span style="color:black"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small">Deepam reaches out to over 220 children through 6 centres around Chennai, in India. Over 60 active volunteers (drawn from our volunteer pool of over 250 members) teach the children for 2 hours every weekend. We use netbooks, laptops, and the Internet as teaching tools and resources, even as we teach children the skills needed to use them. </span></font></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span><span style="color:black"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small"><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small"><br>
</span></font></span></span></font></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span><span style="color:black"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small"><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small">More about Deepam can be found on the web, here </span></font><span style="color:rgb(42, 93, 176)"><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small"><a href="http://www.deepam.org.in/" style="color:rgb(42, 93, 176)" target="_blank">http://www.deepam.org.in</a> </span></font></span></span></span></font></span></span></p>
</div></span></div></span></div><br>-- <br>Karthikeyan Vijayakumar<br>+919884217276<br><a href="http://www.deepam.org.in" target="_blank">www.deepam.org.in</a><br><br><br><br><br>