OLPC Iraq/news

October 7th, 2008

On October 7th, the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) for the
province of Muthanna celebrated their second XO distribution. Muthanna
is a remote, agricultural province on Iraq?s Saudi Arabian border, very
poor and sparsely-populated. Nevertheless, Dick Torborg of the PRT
reports that the second deployment ? which brings the total number of
XOs in the province to 200 ? attracted an impressively large gathering,
including provincial leaders and local media. Torborg says the kids and
school community were in high spirits. There are plans to locally
distribute a minimum of 200 additional machines by the end of the year.

The OLPC team in Iraq consists of Torborg, together with representatives
of Iraq?s Director of General Education and members of the Yakthah
Institute, a local NGO. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad will soon be posting
an Internet article on the event.

Iraq is a priority country for OLPC, so it is gratifying to see our
program take hold and gather strength there. Darah Tappitake, Robert and
Matt will continue working with the PRTs and other potential partners,
such as International Relief & Development (IRD), to bring XOs to
children throughout the country.

Soure: Community news