"All I want is a Laptop"

“If I had one wish – I would ask for a personal laptop!” words of ten-year-old Sri Lakshmi, a student of the Rural India Student Education Foundation (RISE).  Sri Lakshmi is an only child and the only child living on the RISE campus. Extremely smart she translates English to Tamil in her village, she knows how to use a laptop and she is extremely advanced in mathematics. Her hobbies include yoga, karate and dance; all activities that are taught at the RISE elementary school. She tries to hide her beautiful smile as she shows off her moves. When we asked her “What do you want us to help you with?” she quickly responded: “All I want is a laptop,” she went on for twenty minutes on how a laptop could help advance her in school. She loves translating for the people in her village and would love to help create translation signs for the elderly workers in the village. Only ten years of age but already inspired to help teach the people of her village be more advanced.

Sri Lakshmi was one of the first of ninety students to greet us on the campus. As our bus arrived in front of the campus it dropped us onto a dark path to our place of residence, for which we would be staying for the duration of our trip.  Our first memory of Sri Lakshmi was her beautiful smile and greeting us in English “Welcome to Rise Foundation, I have spent all day waiting for your arrival; I hear you are the teachers with the laptops.”

It is such exciting times for the students at RISE elementary to have foreigners visit the campus to deliver laptops and train teachers. Our aim is to help all of the determined students at RISE gain access to their personal laptop allowing the young children of the village to use laptops for homework assignments to increase their confidence as they enter higher levels of education in a technological advanced world.

We are currently collecting donations to help Sri Lakshmi purchase a laptop. We were able to secure a special discount at a local computer store offering laptops to us starting at $500. To donate or learn more about Sri Lakshmi wish please feel free to contact abobe@mills.edu