The group behind the "$100 laptop" has formed a partnership¹ which it hopes will deliver computers to every primary school child in East Africa.

“100美元笔记本”组织方与东非共济体达成合作协议，希望东非国家的每一所小学的学生都能用上该笔记本电脑。

The partnership between One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and the East African Community (EAC) aims to deliver 30 million laptops in the region by 2015.

OLPC has also announced a partnership with a UN agency which aims to deliver 500,000 machines in the Middle East.

Both the UN agency and the EAC first need to raise cash for the laptops.

The two groups aim to find donors² to help pay for the machines, which currently sell for more than $200, despite intentions to sell them for less.

"At the end of the day, it all comes down to（归根结底，实质上是） money," Matt Keller of OLPC told BBC News, talking about the EAC partnership.

"Ideally, we would live in a world where governments can equip every kid to be educated, but that's not the case."

Tech trials

He said the EAC was currently drafting（起草，挑选） a letter to US President Barack Obama to ask if the US could provide assistance to pay for the project. The countries were also exploring links with the aid community, he said.

"This is a very ambitious（有雄心的） project for which we will have to partner with various people and institutions to mobilise and fund the resources required to meet our objectives by 2015," said Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, secretary general of the EAC.

The organisation³ represents the governments of Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi.

Some of the countries have already run small trials with the machines, including Rwanda which has more than 20,000 pupils using them.

Mr Keller said the country already had an order for 70,000 more and had shown the other countries in the area the benefit of technology in schools.

The partnership with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA联合国难民救济及工程局) aims to distribute half a million laptops to Palestinian children throughout the Middle East.

UNRWA looks after more than four million Palestinian refugees in five countries

It has been conducting trials with 1,500 machines in the region and has begun to distribute a further 2,100 to a school in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip.

"For us it is vital to get computers to our kids," Adnan Abu Hasna of UNRWA told BBC News.

"We think many people and individuals will support the idea."