GEORGETOWN – The government’s US$30million One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative is in its final planning stage and distribution is likely be linked to ongoing community development projects.
Government has already contracted United States national Jud Lohmeyer to be manager of the OLPF project. Stabroek News has also learnt that the initiative is intended to spur economic development among the poor although it remains unclear how this will be achieved.
At the official launch of the Suriname/Guyana-Submarine Cable System on July 29, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that the money would be pledged over the next three years to purchase laptops for at least 90 000 poor families. He recently said he was “working aggressively at it” and that he hoped to unfold the project “within the next three months”.
According to information from a source familiar with the initiative, a final implementation summary is being prepared before the details are made public. Lohmeyer, a former Peace Corps volunteer, was unwilling to comment on the project.
A project plan is being prepared by the Project Management Office, in the Office of Climate Change, to support and foster community and economic development within the framework of the government’s Low Carbon Development Strategy. (Stabroek News)
