The story begins……

In Reaksmy, a remote village in Cambodia with no electricity or running water, Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founding Chairman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, was shocked by how harsh learning was there – proper stationery is non-existent; drop-out rate from school is high as the families needed the children to work and earn a living. “What can the children do?” as everyone will wonder, most of the children turn to beg in the streets while a few “lucky” ones continue their way to child labour in sweat shops.

Prof. Negroponte and his family founded a school here in 1999, putting in a satellite dish and generators, then they gave the children laptops. Going to school and learning are not the same to the children in Reaksmy anymore - they love going to school!

This is when the journey of One Laptop Per Child begins.

Prof Negroponte believes children are the most valuable resources of the world. To the children who live in an underprivileged environment, an access to knowledge through an affordable laptop is the way to eliminate the digital divide and a key to a better and brighter future.

The Official Launch of One Laptop Per Child [OLPC]

In 2005, the non-profit making organization “One Laptop Per Child” was officially launched at the World Symposium on the Information Society in Tunis of Switzerland.

The Mission of OLPC

To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

From 2005 onwards, OLPC, together with like-minded corporates (like AMD, Nortel, Google) and volunteers who have sponsored and helped, developed the prototype of the project’s dream laptop. Through the collaboration of sponsors and volunteers who share the same mission, the mass production of the “XO” laptops and their delivery to the children in need were made possible in November 2007.

Our Footsteps

Thus far, over 700,000 XO laptops have been delivered to the underprivileged children in countries from around the world including India, Nigeria, Cambodia, Argentina and many more.

We are soon to begin our new venture in China and Asia Pacific (which includes Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.)

The One Laptop Per Child Asia Pacific [OLPC APAC] is officially set up in October 2008.

Mr Anthony Wong, SBS, JP, is the first President of OLPC APAC. Mr Wong was the Director-General of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) and Commissioner for Innovation and Technology before he retired from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Mr John Tsang, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has also kindly agreed to be a Patron of the project.

OLPC APAC has successfully recruited a group of volunteers, comprising members from the teaching team of the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, experts from renowned Information Technology corporations, and experienced personnel from non-governmental organizations to assist in the planning, implementation, training and monitoring of OLPC APAC projects.

We are about to set foot in the earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan.