Fundación Zamora Terán recently expanded the work of OLPC Nicaragua to include the community on the beautiful and legendary Ometepe, an island formed by the two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua.
Teachers play a key role in the use of the XO laptop, incorporating it into daily planning and classroom activities. Maria Josefina Terán Zamora, its founder, said of their new island initiative:
“During the past two years, we’ve been working hard to ensure that our OLPC project is one of the best in the world and delivers the maximum benefit to our children. Today we are very happy to include the children of Ometepe and connect them to the rest of Nicaragua and to the world.â€
The Fundación coordinates and executes XO purchase logistics and installation and provides a high level of technical support. A pedagogical training plan has been developed with the support of a qualified educational team that facilitates the integration of the XO into the existing Ministry of Elementary School Education Curriculum. Schools participating in the OLPC project must meet specific selection criteria.
The Ometepe initiative has been supported particularly by contribution from the LAFISE-BANCENTRO Bank, and brings to 25,000 the number of XOs distributed to children in schools across the country.
You can read the official press release.
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As one of its residents writes about the island:
“En Nicaragua hay dos grandes lagos que ocupan más de nueve mil kilómetros cuadrados. Mucho comparado con la poca extensión territorial de mi paÃs. En el más grande de los lagos, el Cocibolca, se encuentra la isla de Ometepe, en la isla hay dos volcanes. Dentro de uno de los volcanes hay una laguna. La isla tiene además muchas otras atracciones…“