The One Laptop per Child organisation is gaining momentum as more supporters sign-up.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed this week between the East African Community and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation with the aim of transforming the lives of underprivileged children.

OLPC is a charity which was launched to help give access for every child in the world to knowledge and modern forms of education – through the provision of affordable laptops.

As most of the one billion children in the emerging world do not have access to adequate education, OLPC have designed the XO laptop which is gradually being distributed with the support of governments and corporate supporters.

The East African Community (EAC) is now playing its part in transforming primary school education and promoting better access to laptops and connectivity for the region’s underprivileged children.  It has been described by one supporter as “a success for regional legislature.”

Speaking at the ceremony in Kampala, Uganda, where the MoU was announced, Amb. Juma Mwapachu, Secretary General of the EAC, said: “If you want to build a knowledge economy, you must have a computer literate population, starting from primary, secondary school children and all the way to university…  This is a very ambitious project for which we will have to partner with various people and institutions to mobilise and find the resources required to meet our objectives by 2015.”

Matt Keller, Vice President of OLPC, commented on the momentous occasion: “The OLPC’s partnership with the EAC represents another significant step toward a world in which every child has access to a world-class education.

“The EAC is dedicating itself not simply to one laptop per child, but to a world in which the children become agents of change – making things, teaching each other and their families and affecting the social development of their community.”

Hon. Dr. Diodorus Kamala, Chairperson of the EAC Council Ministers and Tanzania’s Minister for East African Cooperation said the MoU would provide the impetus for partner states to commit resources to the venture.

Earlier this year, with the support of DHL – the world’s leading express delivery and logistics company – more than 2,000 refurbished XO laptops were distributed to school children in Haiti to provide internet access for those displaced following the devastating earthquake in the country.