OLPC in Afganistan and Rwanda

I found this pretty recent article on CNN.com that gives stories of the OLPC programs in countries of heavy conflict and unstable governments.  The OLPC program is providing many disadvantaged children and schools in countries like Afghanistan and Rwanda.  One of these schools, which had previously had only 50% attendance for enrolled students, has gone to over 1,000 students over capacity since the OLPC supplied the school with laptops.  The students quickly became familiar with the computers, (many had never seen one before), and they were allowed to take them home to their parents who also had never used computers before.  Many of the places where OLPC supplied computers did not have electricity, so traditional computers could not be kept there.  The solar powered laptops gave the children and the community their first experiences with computers which allowed them the kind of technology opportunities they had previously been without.

In these stories, two kinds of access are improved for these villages where the OLPC program is present.  The laptops are obvious improvements in physical access being improved.  The introduction of of these devices in the communities gave new opportunities to the children and even adults who live there.  The other improvement in access is the more ambiguous mental access.  The article shows how the introduction of the solar powered laptops in these countries helped the children realize the potential of technology in their lives.  This new motivation and interest in computers is seen in the increase of school enrollment and the desire to gain education and literacy.