We would also like to draw your attention to the Statesman‘s profile of Ken Starks and the HeliOS project.
The HeliOS people take in donated computers, refurbish them, put LINUX on them, and then get them into the hands of poor kids whose families can’t afford to buy computers.
Frequently, these families also can’t afford Internet access, which is the next big problem that the HeliOS people are trying to solve; so far, they haven’t had much luck with that.