Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2012

one laptop per child

A few years ago, I volunteered at a school in Costa Rica for extremely impoverished kids. They'd been working for years at the school to build a computer lab in the hopes that computers would teach the students valuable skills and motivate them by showing them that there exists an entirely different world outside of their shantytown. Through technology and education, they hoped to give these kids a chance. The school in Costa Rica has computers now, I am very happy to report. But millions of children around the world still do not have access to computers or quality education.

You can help put laptops directly into the hands of children around the world by doing something a lot of you may already do every day - buy groceries. Purchase specially-marked packages of Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Gushers and enter the URL code from the box on the Win One Give One website. For every 100 UPC codes entered, Betty Crocker® will donate an XO laptop™from One Laptop Per Child to a child in Africa (up to 1,725 laptops). Apparently, you will also be entered to win a laptop, too...so that's cool.

If, like me, you don't eat Fruit Roll-Ups regularly anymore, I urge you to go and check out One Laptop Per Child and find one of the many other ways you can help. OLPC's mission is 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. Most of the more than one billion children in the emerging world don’t have access to adequate education. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

OLPC's cool little XO laptop is designed and built especially for children in developing countries. It’s about the size of a small textbook, has built-in wireless, and a unique screen that is readable under direct sunlight for children who go to school outdoors. It’s extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, and fun for the kids. Almost everywhere kids have XO laptops, school attendance increases dramatically as the children begin to open their minds and explore their own potential.

You can give a laptop to a child in the developing world with a donation of $199. You can also donate any other amount you wish and when you donate in someone's name, they will receive a card honoring the donation.


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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

[UPDATED] google chrome for a cause

This one is so easy, you literally do good just by turning it on.


If you use Google Chrome to surf the interwebs, install the Chrome for a Cause extension and your web browsing will drive donations made to charities around the world. Each tab you open between December 15 -19 will raise money for charity. At the end of each day, contribute your tabs by choosing one of five charities to support:


The Nature Conservancy is a conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Doctors Without Borders is an independent, international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid in nearly 70 countries to those most in need.

Un Techo para mi PaĆ­s is working in 19 countries across the Americas to improve the quality of life of impoverished families through the construction of transitional housing.

Room to Read is a non-profit organization seeking to transform the lives of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.

You can, of course, donate to any of the charities above directly, too. Easy easy easy. Happy clicking!


UPDATE (12/15/11):

Soooo...Google Chrome for a Cause states clearly on all their web pages that the program was running from December 15 - 19. What they did not clearly state, however, was a year. It appears that they might not be running the program again this year.

I have emailed the extension developers to get some answers. If I learn that they are not running the program again this year, I will first offer my sincere apologies for my oversight. Then, I will try to use all my charms and the support you all have shown to convince Google to run the program again this year.

My apologies in advance for anyone who was looking forward to making a difference this year by using Google Chrome for a Cause and I thank you for doing good. More to come...
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Monday, June 6, 2011

envirosearch.org

Our girl Oprah is gone *sob*, but I am still here! And I have returned with a FREE and EASY way that you can make the world a better place simply by doing something you have always done: searching the innernets.

Carbonfund.org recently launched Envirosearch.org, a free online search service that enables anyone to help protect the environment every day simply by doing searches on the innernets. Envirosearch.org is powered by Bing and Yahoo, so you still get high-quality search results, but by using envirosearch.org, you also help the environment at the same time. Each search generates proceeds that support environmental projects and organizations that are supporting renewable energy, reforestation and other efforts to reduce pollution, clean our air and water, protect habitats and wildlife, and fight climate change. Envirosearch's current projects include the Haiti Reforestation Initiative, India Mangrove Project, and United States Reforestation Projects.

I set my Google Chrome browser to automatically default to envirosearch whenever I do a search. It was easy and I feel real good about saving a tree every time I search for social work careers and/or espadrilles. Now you go and follow the simple instructions on the website (click "Add ES to your browser") and do the same!
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Thursday, December 16, 2010

a human right

Merry Christmas!  I got you a satellite!

No, seriously. You can buy a satellite for Christmas. Or Hannukah. Or New Years. Easter. Tuesday. Whatevs.

The company that owns the world's most capable communications satellite has just filed for bankruptcy protection.  The NGO A Human Right wants to buy that satellite and move it over a country (or continent) that could use internet access.  A Human Right believes “equal, universal, uninhibited Internet access is a human right,” so they are trying to raise $150k in order to purchase “the most capable communications satellite put into space” so they can use it to provide poor people (in Papau New Guinea to start and then maybe the whole of Africa) with free Internet service.

Free internet for everyone!!!

If this works the satellite will be used to offer a diminished service for free to everyone.  Then they'll allow telecommunications companies to purchase and re-sell high speed bandwidth because the goal is to not only get everyone online, but also facilitate the growth of an industry & hey...someone's got to pay the bills.  Check out their page on Facebook, too.

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