Colombia Signs up for 65,000 OLPCs

A major coffee-growing region in Colombia has placed an order for 65,000 of OLPC's XO-l laptops for its primary school children.

Aside from the stir One Laptop Per Child’s XO-1 laptop has created stateside, and the mini-notebook revolution it debatably helped launch (alongside the Asus Eee), not much is often heard about the project’s ultimate goal: getting laptops into tiny hands abroad.  The crew took one major step closer this week, though, with an order of 65,000 laptops coming in from one of Colombia’s major coffee-growing regions.

The State of Caldas placed the order to supply its children with OLPC’s XO-1 laptops. “My government and our State legislators are fully committed to giving each and every child of primary school age the same opportunity to access knowledge as the most privileged children in New York, Berlin or Tokyo,” said Governor Mario Aristizabal. “The One Laptop per Child program is the right vehicle to reach that goal and its potential socio-economic impact cannot be under-emphasized.”

The first batch of 15,000 laptops will arrive in Caldas later this year, with the remaining 50,000 making it over through 2009. In order to make sure the laptops actually make it into the hands of children and get use, the governor has also created a local team to supervise their deployment and provide support for them.