A vernacular computing initiative launched by Lenovo India has launched ‘Matrubhasha’ that empowers school children to gain computer proficiency in their mother tongue, without depending on English.

Part of Lenovo’s commitment to corporate social responsibility the Matrubhasha project would include the donation of 150 brand new Lenovo H series desktops, pre-installed with a unique vernacular computing software application called LooKeys.

Lenovo aims to break the language barrier and enable children to explore ideas and develop creativity in their mother tongue. 

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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