TurnYourWorldAround’s Connect-a-Kid and the OLPC

Disclosure: I work at Youth Service America, where Tara Suri is a member of the National Youth Council</a>, a collection of amazing young people who make the likes of most of us tired with just seeing the amount of good they get done on a daily basis. She's a co-founder of HOPE (Helping Orphans Pursue Education) (when she was 13), She was also named Cosmo Girl of the year for 2007, and has recently launched TurnYouWorldAround.org and Aandolan.org, is an accomplished photographer, public speaker, and traveler.
Tara Suri in CosmoGIRL as "The Giver"

TurnYouWorldAround.org/Aandolan (which means a movement for change in Hindi) is an organization that "implements social-change initiatives and provides youth with the tools to become changemakers." I don't want to spoil the surprise waiting for you if you explore the site for a few minutes.

TurnYouWorldAround/Aandolan's recent project is Connect a Kid, where youth can create projects to fund-raise for OLPC through their school, community, or just friends and family: [Connect a Kid] is an initiative of Aandolan, an organization started by teens that provides youth with the tools to become change-makers. Having partnered with OLPC, [Connect a Kid] works to raise funds to purchase laptops, and also aims to raise awareness about the need for global education. Youth register --- and then work with friends and family to help kids around the world!

The website and information packet you get post-registration provide fundraising event ideas, action plan outlines, and other useful tools to create, promote, and evaluate project(s). The groundbreaking part of this is that it's a youth-to-youth program, empowering both the recipient of the XO laptop as well as the giver to realize their ability to organize and enact change.

Tara Suri on CNN’s YPWR CNN’s YPWR (Young People Who Rock) has a blog post up about Tara, and now an interview at cnn.com/video