Resumen en español al final del artículo

Last Thursday a fire in the warehouse of the Peruvian Ministry of Education in Lima destroyed 40,000 XOs, 21,000 other laptops, 6,000 solar panels, and countless other educational materials.

The warehouse back in August 2010

According to the Peruvian Minister of Education Patricia Salas the total damages have been estimated to amount to approximately USD $100 million. Beyond this significant financial loss it is yet unclear as to how the education system will cope with the lack of educational materials, most of which had been destined to be distributed to schools in the country's rainforest. As a result UNICEF, El Comercio newspaper, and others have put out calls for companies, organizations, and individuals to donate relevant educational materials so the impact on the recently started school year can be minimized.

This is without a doubt a tragedy for Peru in general and the affected pupils and teachers in particular. I sincerly hope that the country can recover from it soon and also finds ways to limit the impact on the affected pupils.

Resumen en español: La semana pasada un incendio en almacén del Ministerio de Educación del Perú destroyó 40,000 XOs, 21,000 otros laptops, 6,000 paneles solar y un sinnúmero de otros materiales educativos. El total de pérdidas se ha estimado a aproximadamente USD $ 100 millones. Sin duda esto es una tragedia para el Perú en general y los alumnos y los maestros afectados en particular. Sinceramente espero que el país pueda recuperarse pronto y también se encuentra una manera de limitar el impacto sobre los alumnos afectados.