CFACT recently returned from Quintano Roo, Mexico.  This time, CFACT at the University of Texas-Austin went down with 7 laptops and solar panels, prepared to help better lives and give people a future.  Students learned why the way CFACT does 3rd world development is a far more effective way of creating change and helping people than the way the left does.  Handing over a big pile of money only goes to corrupt bureaucrats, not to the people who need it the most. Those who go and search for not only the real problems, but real solutions can have the biggest impact.  That’s why CFACT does what it does in Quintano Roo.  In 2003, we first visited Valle Verde and discovered the people’s need for laptops and technology. We’ve been helping fill that need since then.

Several laptops were donated to the school in La Ciudad de la Alegria (City of Joy). The school was recently built and opened in August for children of low income families.  These children now have the opportunity to learn computer skills.  With these skills they will be able to continue their education, get a job, go home and teach their families and communities.

The rest of the laptops were donated to a small community located an hour and a half outside Cancun. Heroes de Nacozari is a community that lives in extreme poverty.  The people there have nothing.  When we arrived, children were sliding down a hill of dirt on bits of plastic garbage.  This was their idea of a toy.  CFACTers installed solar panels on the roof of a hut, and set up 2 laptops. Some people in the village had never even seen a computer before, let alone touched one or learned how to use one. The fact that the electricity that came out of the solar panels was theirs and theirs alone, was a novel one. No one could tax it; no one could take it away.

CFACT’s laptop program has now spread from Valle Verde to Heroes de Nacozari.  It will continue to expand as we create a more constructive tomorrow for the people of Quintano Roo.