Though the government of Ethiopia and the society have shown support to OPC’s implementation in Ethiopia, the furtherance of the program, which distributed 5,000 laptop computers to children from second to eight grades last year, is facing financial constraint.

“In Ethiopia, we donated laptops because while the political will and grassroots support are strong, funding was an issue,” told Africa News, Matt Keller OLPC program Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. The 5,000 laptops were donated to the country as a result of the 2007 Give One, Get One promotion of OLPC. The total cost of the laptops including curriculum development and teachers’ training was 940,000 USD.

“For example, In Rwanda and Ghana not only is there extraordinary political will, the government has also committed substantial funding.”In order sustain the program in Ethiopia by solving the funding problem, OLPC is currently searching for donors in collaboration with Ethiopian officials.

“We are beginning to work very closely with the Ethiopian ambassadors to both the U.S. and Italy, and are trying to raise resources for more laptops,” he said. In 2007 media reported that the Italian Government has committed to purchasing 50,000 units for Ethiopia.

Currently in Africa the strongest projects are in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Soon there will be 5,000 laptops in Cameroon. “There are many smaller projects scattered around the continent, but those are the biggest. In fact, President Kagame in Rwanda is ordering 100,000 laptops,” said Matt Keller

OLPC Conception

OLPC was conceived in 2002 by Professor Nicholas Negroponte. The idea was that OLPC would be able to sell the laptops to second and third world governments for US$100 by 2008, though the price was around US$135 to $175 in 2007.

At the heart of the OLPC vision, is the XO-1, a low cost laptop that is rugged, extremely energy efficient (it can be powered using a built-in wind-up generator), supports mesh wireless networking, and uses open source software.
Professor Negroponte envisages seeing millions of children learning using his laptops in 2010. OLPC began to mass produce the laptops 15 months ago and currently 750,000 children worldwide are using them.

In 2007, when the promised orders for millions of laptops from some developing countries failed to be realized, Negroponte expressed his frustration to the International Herald Tribune saying: “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written, and, yes, it has been a disappointment”.

The achievement so far seems unsatisfactory though the Director is still optimistic. “In some ways it's going far better than we could have expected. Would we like to have had more out by now, absolutely! But as more and more people see the results, those numbers will come in time,” he says.

The Challenge

OLPC faced criticism from some developing countries the first day the idea was announced. Some criticized the idea as an ICT program that facilitates market for computers and makes life difficult for the poor who can’t afford to buy computers for their kids.

On the other hand, the professor argues that the main goal of the program is to reach poor countries children who don’t have access to schools.
Africa's children will fall even further behind in a world that is increasingly becoming divided more digitally than anything else, argues the promoters of OLPC.

“If African economies are to grow, African children must be given access to computers which not only connect them, but challenge them to create, express and innovate. This is the future,” says Matt Keller.

As the debate continues, Negroponte still hopes that this initiative will give the developing world a taste of what the XO-1 has to offer, by allowing ”perhaps” 5000 units to be distributed to 20 countries.

As Matt Keller hopes, would there be new Silicon Valleys sprouting up in the most remote parts of Cameroon, Ethiopia and Rwanda in 20 years? Or would OLPC fails?