Impoverished families in underdeveloped countries could have one less basic need to worry about, and it’s not clean water or medicine ‘-‘- it’s laptops.

One Laptop per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte spoke Thursday night at Harvard University about the success of his education project worldwide. OLPC exports free laptops to children in Third World countries between the ages of six and 12.

‘If kids learn how to use a computer . . . they come closer to thinking about the process of thinking,’ Negroponte said. ‘This program is making a difference.’

Negroponte founded OLPC in 2002 after witnessing the positive effects of laptop use on a small Cambodian village. The nonprofit organization manufactures the child-friendly XO-1 laptop and produces 100,000 new laptops every month, Negroponte said.

Its status as a nonprofit organization allows OLPC to focus on helping as many people as it can, he said.

‘This gives us a clarity of purpose, attracts extraordinary volunteers and allows us to make partnerships with organizations like the United Nations,’ Negroponte said.

Students in more than 20 countries have received laptops, and OLCP hopes to next extend its reach to Afghanistan and Iraq. Over half a million kids all over the globe have been affected by the expanding programs, Negroponte said.

Emerging nations need to change the way they educate their children, he said. By providing a window to the world, laptops can allow children to be their own teachers.

OLPC learning consultant Barbara Barry said the mission of providing a laptop for every child is beneficial.

‘I think our laptops are the future of learning for kids growing up in poverty,’ she said. ‘They are easy to use and teach kids fundamental skills necessary to break free from their conditions.’

Grassroots International intern Christopher Jetter said the free laptop campaign will help underdeveloped countries flourish.

‘The idea of bringing a laptop into a different country is encouraging,’ he said. ‘It will have immediate, tangible effects.’

Harvard Global Initiative president Sarah Nam said it will take time to measure the impact of the program because it is difficult to apply traditional methods of study to the new kind of program.

‘It will be hard to see concrete results anytime soon,’ she said.

Some criticize OLPC for focusingon technology rather than basic needs, saying that giving a computer to a family on the brink of starvation is difficult to understand, Harvard law student Larry Stevens said.

‘It seems odd to give kids a computer when they don’t even have more than one meal to eat a day,’ Stevens said. ‘I just feel that kids can’t learn unless they have the energy to.’

Harvard professor Calestous Juma said OLPC’s XO-1 Laptop will change the face of technology.

‘I believe that the One Laptop per Child initiative will do to education what the cell phone did for communication,’ he said. ‘It will allow kids in many different countries to communicate with one another while learning. It is sensational.’