Maya is not open source, though there is a free (read: castrated) version. Use Blender. I learned everything I needed to launch my career from a bottom-rung 2gb Intel Celeron P.o.S. laptop running Linux, Blender, Gimp, and all kinds of other open source programming and creativity tools. That laptop is 6 years old and still gets stuff done today (though I do have a far more powerful rig now). IMO the modern equivalent of this kind of low-end laptop with open source software could really help refugees, and it would be relatively cheap.