Welcome to Kids on the Grid!
We have just completed our pilot project in the Himalayas to connect kids to the internet.
We delivered 10 laptops donated by Orbitz.com to 4 schools in rural Nepal, where most of the kids had never seen a computer. It was exciting to see how keen the kids were to play with the laptops and use them to learn English, mathematics, geography, and even Word and Excel. We were very happy to find that these villages in Helambu now have electricity, although it is intermittent, making laptops much more suitable than desktops.
First taste of computers for kids in Helambu, May 2012
The next step is to connect these schools to the internet. The team in Nepal has just successfully tested a wireless dongle from two of the schools. It is fantastic news that wireless data is available in these rural areas. The kids had been really interested to hear about the concepts of the internet, search and email, and it will be exciting to hear about their first experiences online.
We are keen to scale the project to get many more kids on the grid. We have access to more great refurbished laptops via Orbitz, and the key challenge now is importing them to Nepal without heavy import duties. We are working on a few angles…
In the meantime check out a few photos of the pilot project in our Gallery.
Kids on the Grid 
This website is looking really good already. A great set of photos and a good introduction about the project team. It will be good to be able to hear how the piloting of the laptops is going and what snags need to be overcome. It was nice to see the kids in the Nepalese village schools were responding with so much interest.
Thanks! We’re excited about kicking off the next phase of the project this week.
Chloe: As I shared with you last week, this is a very touching story. It can serve as a role model to empower kids in such regions globally with connectivity and latest technology. I am very impressed that you were able to come over all the operational constraints to actually make it happen. If there is any way I can help you out, let me know. Kudos to your team.
Hi Vikrant – many thanks for the kind words and sorry for the slow reply. We are kicking off the next phase of the project right now to get more schools and kids in Helambu connected. We’re delighted with progress although getting the internet to work reliably in such remote rural areas is a challenge. I’m happy to chat if you have ideas to help this or other similar projects.