How to start ?

[me.nepal]

Hello:)

I`m living in Nepal . I can`t afford to buy laptops only by myself and donate them to children. One of my frinends is running small orphanage here , i was thinking if there is any way i could get few laptops for those children? Do i need to start any project? How to do it? Sorry if my post if naive but i really would like to get chance to help those kids.. You cannot imagine how hard is for them to achive anything in such poor country without family... IF they`re lucky they`re in orphanage, ussually they end up street as junkies or are exploited in way you`re not able to imagine... All i can invest is my work, i can try to get some donations but it`s very hard to convince people to donate money...

[rogerwillson]

You can start from middle class people. They will appreciate you. All the best.

[me.nepal]

what do you mean "to start from middle class people"? First of all there is no middle class in nepal... Is that mean i MUST get money and than buy it by myself ?

[winraz]

Try to find orphanage houses in Nepal and keep touch with middle class people so that you can easily identify the people.

[manymny]

my advice would not rely on the availability of xo-1 laptops. go more generic. not that i don't recommend olpc, i wish its coverage was complete. in areas not supported by olpc, what can you do?

one thing that you have to think about is the availability of clean electricity. when i say "clean" i mean the lines themselves, if they're too noisy or unstable they can cause problems. olpc does not (as far as i know) work on this issue much beyond making certain power supplies, but that's probably not going to help you unless you have an xo laptop. what is helpful are the people (not officially related to olpc) working to find new or innovative ways to bring power for laptops and pc's to users.

that kind of d-i-y spirit is something not encouraged by the computer industry in the united states, you have to admire it. it has to go beyond the power supplies, too.

if you can get any equipment, or set up any program to receive any equipment, then from there you can create a program to bring computers to your area. my advice again: don't focus on graphical environments or making everything the same. you will have some machines with graphical environments, some without. all can be used for teaching, but it takes more work to teach many different things on different systems.

learn to install linux, learn to take machines apart and put them together. you can do this in a few months, if you have internet access, teaching yourself. most people don't- because most people don't find it's important enough to them. do this project for yourself, for your education, for your personal empowerment. then, share it all with the next generation. i hope you can get clean power and find some equipment so you can get started. or, you can also try to talk to your government about joining or expanding the olpc program. if you have time, do both.

[ShashaCorleone]

My suggestion also is to get one cheaper than XO,I think children in Nepal will only use this on their studies, right?

[elizajohn12]

Hello Me.Nepal,
This is John from UK and I understand your problem and I also know that people of Nepal are poor . First of all you should try to find orphanage houses in Nepal and keep in touch with upper class people. You must convince rich people for donating in any way. For this you can organise meeting and function with rich people and try to explain difficulties of orphan child and also you should try to convince them to donate some money for this poor and needy children.By this money, you can purchase laptops for this children.