OLPC hails Rwandan example
GOVERNMENT
By BiztechAfrica - Sept. 4, 2011, 12:52 p.m.
The CEO and Chairman of the One Laptop Per Child programme has visited Rwanda for talks on positioning the country as a consulting point for the programme.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) distributes specially designed laptops to children around the world. Rwanda was an early adopter of the programme.
The country said earlier this year that over 65 000 of the laptops were already in circulation, with 35 000 updated laptops due to go into circulation around the country.
President Paul Kagame received the CEO and Chairman of the One Laptop Per Child Project, Rodrigo Arboleda, in his office at Urugwiro Village.
Speaking to the press after meeting President Kagame, Arboleda said: “I came here to pay tribute to what Rwandans have achieved under President Kagame, after going through very difficult times. Rwandans have shown that they are interested in the future more than the past and this is an opportunity you should not lose.”
The CEO also discussed with the President additional opportunities for cooperation that would keep Rwanda in the leadership role in the programme, including positioning Rwanda as a consulting point for the program, as a nation that adopted the One Laptop Per Child programme in its nascent stages.
Rwanda intends to set up a laptop assembly plant that will serve the whole of Africa and create a global awareness campaign to share the success in Rwanda so as to become a global deployment model.
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