Villa Cardal, Uruguay: Center of worldwide attention

As this blog is receiving lots of visits from outside spanish-speaking countries, I decided to include some contents in english - well, some kind of broken-english, let's say ;-) . This is a very important moment for us, as we have been working hard to launch the project and get it right. I promise to write some articles in English describing our experience soon.

Last thursday was not just any day in Villa Cardal. This Uruguayan town with a population of about 2.000 was host more governmental and received more attention from the press than it had ever probably received in its history.
But what happened there was not only important for its citizens, nor for the country: It began the first experience of one-on-one computing that covers 100% of children in school. This is unprecedented.
The experience was incredible, there are many details to talk about and discuss that I promise to continue blogging in the next days. For now, you can see the gallery of photos that I took in the place.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Felicitaciones a Uruguay por haber emprendido y ahora estar llevando a cabo este proyecto.

Y me alegro que la plataforma informatica del OLPC sea software abierto y en particular Linux, sin ninguna vinculacion a grandes empresas informaticas. Eso de por si ya es todo un ejemplo para el niño del resultado que es posible lograr trabajando solidariamente y en comunidad, solamente con el objetivo de que las cosas funcionen y alguien las pueda usar, dejando los beneficios economicos en segundo ( o ultimo! ) lugar.

Un abrazo desde Cordoba-Argentina.

Unknown said...

hola si necesitas ayuda con traduccion yo te puedo colaborar, y que buen aporte;)

Unknown said...

hey, i know you guys think you are doing something great here, but in reality, i as a uruguayan american have realized your wrong. Here you constantly see little children on the streets begging for money, and the money is NEVER used for food, instead they buy the deadly drugs brewed by poor people. This drug is corrupting uruguay. It once was a great country, but now all of the poor people take this drug and it has seriously affected crime rates. Giving these kids labtops will either Cause them to get robbed which is very usual in poor neighborhoods or make them sell it for a little extra cash. What you guys need to do is set up stands where people can get food. Kind of like soup kitchens which i do not belive they have any here. Sorry to be so cruel but sadly its the truth, when bush came here the goverment tried to make the city look better by blocking off the bad parts of the city, they tried cleaning the graffiti and even stooping down as low as giving the poor people on the roads some money to get off the roads. I know that to be true becasue i have a friend who works on a main road where bush passed through, he told me some government people gave him a few pesos to just disapear for a few days.

Ramiro Vergara R. said...

Excelente blog.

Los comentarios sobre no estar de acuerdo con proveer un laptop a un niño en lugar de invertir en eliminar la pobreza, lamentablemente no entienden el programa olpc. Se trata de un proyecto de educación no de un simple laptop, es un proyecto con el potencial de crear un salto en la cantidad y calidad de educación que por supuesto ayudará a mediano plazo en eliminar la pobreza en la región.

Unknown said...

in response to anthony:
there are many problems in the world. drugs, homelessness, disease, poverty, this OLPC program is not meant to solve all the world's problems. it is simply another attempt to help those less fortunate. as an electrical engineer, i cannot stop drug problems, homelessness, disease or poverty. i can help spread technology through programs like OLPC in hopes that it will in turn help the children to receive a better education and be better suited to help themselves. it is not meant to be a fix-all, but i think it is an honorable attempt to help others. if you think more needs to be done in other areas, campaign for that as well. don't cut down people who are trying to help in the way that they know best.

Américo Damasceno said...

Somos de um blog do Brasil que noticia coisas relativas ao projeto OLPC. Estamos reproduzindo suas fotos. Vocês podem ver e reproduzir material relativo a experiências sendo feitas no Brasil. O endereço é:

http://www.dmu.com

Charbax said...

Could you provide a longer video from this event that I could post on http://olpc.tv ? If you have posted a video you may provide the link at http://olpc.tv/submit-video/

Thomas Gail Haws said...

Thank you for posting in English, sir. I appreciate it even aunque leo y escribo espan~ol. Again, thanks.

Tom Haws

Tuqui said...

Que bueno que en Uruguay se piense en la educacion informatica en un tema de necesidad.
Espero que otros paises de LatinoAmerica sigan el ejemplo.
Sobre la critica de que habiendo pobres que no tiene para comer, este proyecto no les va a beneficiar. Efectivamente este proyecto debe estar dirigido a gente que teniendo posibilidades de alimentarse y educarse normalmente, no tiene la posibilidad de adquirir una computadora o conectarse a la internet. Es un proyecto que le abrira nuevas posibilidades a una parte de la poblacion que en otro caso estaria relegada a una labor de menor habilidad y pago.

Desde Japon, Felicitaciones

ureseca said...

While handing out cheap laptops to schoolkids in "backward" nations is hokey, and being "connected" doesn't really add anything important to the lives of the people involved but a false sense of worldliness, Villa Cardal is not beset by the typical urban problems of Montevideo and, say, Paysandú. If you give kids in the latter laptops they will sell them for drug money, just as they sell their bodies, a well-known trade in that city. Villa Cardal is just a small town. If some multinational corp wants to experiment on it, to their benefit, I see no problem.

-Marshall Lentini

Martdtp said...

I am student of informatic engineer.When i open the eyes to all the poverty of Peru i get deceptioned of my carrer becouse
i used to think that bring tecnology for poor people was imposible...That tecnology was only for business and get profits...
However, when i know about the OLPC program it bring me a light...

I agree with anthony and that drugs is a big problem.I work with children of the streets and i know this problems.From my litle experience in the sttrets of my city, children use drugs to be far away of his sad reality where they can not dream...
I also know that this laptops have a strong security that if they are stolen they could not be used anymore.

We must think in creative ways that they can use and get the benfits of it so they think in the tool as a friend that he will never sell for drugs and who will help them to dream....

I think that it is not imposible as it was no imposible bring tecnology where it was necesary to empower the children.

nystylepizza said...

Sí, es posible que las computadoras pueden ser robados o usados para comprar drogas, pero ¿cómo puede pararlo la orginazación de OLPC? Para ahora, los niños están aprendiendo en una manera nueva y especial y vamos a ver si todavía tienen sus laptops en un año, pero justo ahora es una inovación maravillosa para ellos. anthony y ureseca, si uds no tienen otra sugerencia para ayudarlos, es obvio que OLPC está ayudando estes niños y no sé porque uds son tan negativos.

micaela said...

Gracias por escribirnos cosas tan lindas ojala q por otros lados y otros países sigan est econsejo la educación de los niños que hoy en dia es lo mas importante para cuando crescamos ser alguien en la vida bueno muchas gracias y suerte Mica

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)