OLPC support from the Prime Minister of Australia

We at OLPC Aus­tralia cel­eb­rated our first birth­day with a massive bang — a black-tie gala event held at the Museum of Con­tem­por­ary Art on Sydney Har­bour. It was a won­der­ful night of cel­eb­rat­ing Aus­trali­an Indi­gen­ous art, music, cul­ture and food. Cor­por­ate spon­sors gen­er­ously donated to the cause.

Of spe­cial note was our key­note speak­er. Prime Min­is­ter Kev­in Rudd voiced his sup­port for our mis­sion, extend­ing deduct­ible gift recip­i­ent status to all dona­tions made to us. Also in attend­ance was the Assist­ant Treas­urer and oth­er rep­res­ent­at­ives of state and fed­er­al gov­ern­ment.

Myself and oth­er mem­bers of the OLPC Aus­tralia team were for­tu­nate enough to meet with Kev­in before the offi­cial pro­ceed­ings com­menced. He took the time to con­verse indi­vidu­ally with each of us. I related my exper­i­ences in Dhal­inybuy, where every child has their own com­puter on the Inter­net. This ratio of 1:1 access is almost unheard of even in city schools. I was pleased to see one of our anec­dotes make it into his address, not very long after our con­ver­sa­tion.

It’s an indes­crib­able feel­ing know­ing that you’re on the radar of the highest polit­ic­al office in the land. We are a small team and have a long way to go, but I firmly believe that we are on track to empower remote com­munit­ies across Aus­tralia.