High Tech for Haiti: One Laptop Per Child
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
When a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the country of Haiti on January 12th, 2010 it left an estimated 300,000 injured and another 230,000 people dead according to Haitian Government reports. By January 24th an estimated 54 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater were recorded affecting an estimated 3 million Haitians.
In the midst of this deadly quake and its ensuing aftershocks organizations like the United Nations, the American Red Cross, UNICEF, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund rushed to support the devastated nation and care for those in need. These organizations helped provide and distribute supplies like water, food, blankets, hand-held radios, and built tent cities as temporary shelters.
But after the makeshift tent cities were built, food was dispersed, medical care provided to the injured and sick, the difficult work of repairing a country with an infrastructure in shambles had just begun. One organization helping to rebuild this fragile infrastructure is little-known non-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC).
Unlike other non-profits providing essentials like food and water, the OLPC fills a slightly different niche of need.
The OLPC develops low-cost laptops and then distributes them to children. Their mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by giving each child a sturdy laptop with pre-installed software allowing them to connect to the internet. The goal is to encourage learning and a better understanding of technology among children who would not otherwise have access to a computer.
These laptops are a life line to Haitian residents trying to correspond with distant family members now living in other countries like the United States. OLPC also served by using their laptops to help to translate instructions on where to find aid from English to Creole, which is spoken by 9 out of 10 of the Haitian population.
Currently, the OLPC is still looking for contributions to donate to the Haiti relief program. The OLPC plans to continue distributing laptops and spare parts for the foreseeable future. If you’d like to learn more about contributing to this cause, visit OLPC’s official website at Laptop.org.



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