One Laptop Per Child Launches Give One Get One Program

One Laptop Per Child is an nonprofit organization founded by Nicholas Negroponte that has created an inexpensive laptop for children in developing countries (see my write-up from last year). Today OLPC launched their Give One Get One program in North America, where if you pay $400, you can buy one of their new OX laptops for your child at home and a second on for a child in a developing country. The program runs through November 26th. You can also donate to the program by buying one or more laptops that will be shipped directly to children around the world.

Our mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. While children are by nature eager for knowledge, many countries have insufficient resources to devote to education—sometimes less than $20 a year per child. Imagine the potential that could be unlocked by giving every child in the world the tools they need to learn, no matter who they are, no matter where they live, no matter how little they may have.

This weekend I was able to spend some time with one of the OX laptops and they are really great little devices. The laptop is very durable and weather resistant, has low power consumption and inludes a pair of rabbit ears to help it connect to a mesh network (here are the hardware specs). The software it uses is 100% open source, running Red Hat’s Fedora Linux operating system with “Sugar”, a really nice, child friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The laptop also includes access to a terminal in case children might want to learn how to program by modifying their own machine.

Laughing Squid is proud to participate in the Give One Get One program. Who knows, in the future maybe they will work out a way that the recipient of your donation will be able to send you email, maybe event photos, and video through the laptop.