Lenovo launches vernacular computing initiative

BANGALORE, INDIA:Lenovo India, a provider in personal computers, today announced the launch of ‘Matrubhasha’, a vernacular computing initiative that empowers school children to gain computer proficiency through their mother tongue, without depending on English.

The Matrubhasha project is part of Lenovo’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and would include donation of 150 brand new Lenovo H series desktops, pre-installed with a unique vernacular computing software application called LooKeys, said a press release.

38 Akshara Foundation libraries in 35 Kannada Government schools and three Urdu Government schools across Bangalore would be the beneficiaries in this program.

Through this endeavor, Lenovo aims to break the language barrier and enable children to explore limitless ideas and develop creativity in their mother tongue. Kannada matinée idol Ramesh Aravind was the chief guest at the launch ceremony at Jawahar Bal Bhavan in Bangalore, the release said.

“Lenovo’s flagship social investment initiative is ‘Hope Through Entrepreneurship',” said Ramprasad Lakshminarayanan, vice president, Transactional Consumer Sales, Lenovo India.

“The Matrubhasha project is a grassroots level initiative, in helping children gain computer literacy so that they’re able to put this technological advancement to their education’s advantage, without depending on English as a medium,” he added.

He added that they hope this advantage exposes them to opportunities that would have otherwise been restricted to English-aware children only.

The LooKeys-enabled Lenovo PCs donated to government school libraries would allow children to learn computing programs in 12 languages – English, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Konkani and Punjabi, the release said.

The children can also use other applications like chat, word processing, power point, E-mails and browse the Web using the language of their choice as the medium.

This initiative would benefit 20,500 children within these Government schools in Bangalore. The school libraries with these Lenovo – LooKeys PCs will go live on March 19, 2009.

Lenovo India employees would also commit approximately 3-5 volunteer hours per month to train the librarians in these schools, who would in turn impart computer education to the students. The volunteers and Akshara staff would also regularly monitor the progress of these projects at the schools, the release added.

Suzanne Singh, trustee, Akshara Foundation, said, “We are thankful to Lenovo India for gifting an infrastructure at the Akshara Libraries in Government schools, which will provide freedom to the school children to redefine the boundaries of their learning curve. We assure all possible support to Lenovo India in ensuring the success of the Matrubhasha project.”