Soros gives &#36;50M to anti-poverty project
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Billionaire financier and global philanthropist George Soros has dedicated $50 million to the anti-poverty work of the Millennium Village project in Africa, his largest commitment to a single entity in almost a decade.
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The One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) has teamed up with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to launch a pilot project in Haiti, the first time the group will be able to comprehensively evaluate the idea of giving laptops directly to students as a learning tool.OLPC, which makes&#160;the $188 XO laptop&#160;aimed at kids in developing nations, will contribute $2 million&#160;to the project, while IDB will provide a $3 million&#160;grant. The project aims to distribute XO laptops to 13,200 students and 500 teachers in 60 Haitian primary schools, the groups said in a statement.The organizations are financing the project to test whether the use of laptops in schools on a one-to-one basis can improve teaching and learning in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world.&quot;We have studies about the impact of computer labs and shared computers in the classroom, but there&#39;s never been a comprehensive evaluation of the learning model based on giving each child a laptop,&quot; said Emma N&#228;slund-Hadley, the IDB&#39;s project team leader. &quot;This is crucial to determine the effectiveness of this model under conditions of extreme poverty and as a tool for accelerating learning.&quot;One aim of the project is to determine how the laptops can be used to help solve problems such as a shortage of qualified teachers, as well as educating children of different ages and grades in the same classroom. The Haitian government hopes the laptops can help speed up the learning process for students who enter school late or have to repeat grades, according to the release.Teachers and students will be trained how to use the laptops and carry out basic maintenance and trouble shooting. Some students will receive vocational training to handle more complex laptop repairs.The project will be evaluated by UNESCO&#39;s Regional Office on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will conduct standardized math and language tests before and after the pilot project to determine performance improvements. Observers will also gauge whether the laptops affect attitudes and behaviors regarding school management, the value families place on education, the use of laptops at home, and the perceived educational progress of the students.The OLPC project started as an attempt to build a $100 laptop and work with governments to pass them out to kids in poor nations, but the XO, will likely end up costing nearly double that amount at first. The organizers of the effort, led by academics and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), hope high-volume sales of the device will drive down costs.The goal of OLPC is to make sure nobody misses out on the benefits of computing. The fear is that&#160;the price of a PC&#160;is keeping too many people in developing countries from learning how software, the Internet and communications via computing can improve their economies, job prospects and lives, or that poor countries will fall further behind the modern world due to their inability to access computers.&#160;
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The Bush administration has spent more than &#36;65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine, paying to bring opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to meet U.S. leaders and helping to underwrite exit polls indicating he won last month's disputed runoff election.
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The countries plan to raise at least $300 million next year to help pay for the treatment of children with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
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The team collecting private donations to finance President Bush's inaugural festivities has taken in &#36;18 million, putting it nearly halfway to its goal of at least &#36;40 million.
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Billionaire investor and Berkshire  Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett is donating about &#36;30  billion in stock to a charitable foundation started by  Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the firm said on Sunday.
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The Scottish Executive pledges a further Â£9m to help some of the world's poorest people, it is announced.
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China and Argentina signed accords on Tuesday that could bring nearly &#36;20 billion in investment from the Asian giant over the next 10 years for the capital-starved Latin American economy.
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A cadre of buyout shops are expected to try to raise a total of &#36;45 billion for new European funds in the next year and a half.
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The federal government will pay &#36;4.2 billion into a program to help Louisiana residents rebuild or sell houses severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, officials said Tuesday.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas&#039; office on Tuesday received &#36;50 million from the Arab League, officials said, the largest amount of international aid to reach the Palestinians since the Hamas militant group won legislative elections in January.
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The Fairtrade Foundation asks the government to help it secure Â£50m in investment over the next five years.
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THE British public has given 50 million in under three days to help the survivors of the tsunami disaster.
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The anti-poverty campaign of U2 frontman Bono is promoting a $30 million effort to pressure Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to make the oft-forgotten issue a priority.
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The UK is now the largest donor to the relief effort after the Government pledged a further Â£35 million, bringing its contribution to Â£50 million.
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An international team sponsored by the U.N. proposed a detailed, ambitious plan to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
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Congress on Tuesday approved &#36;300 million to help victims of violence and support peace talks in the African nation of Sudan.