|
 Home > IT Consumables |
IT Consumables2005-02-28 Computer Aid International recycles donated computers for re-use in schools and community organisations in developing countries. In the UK approaching a million computers every year are thrown away and end up buried in land fill sites. As consumerism and competition here forces companies to upgrade to the latest technology these working machines are simply scrapped. 486 machines no longer have any effective re-sale value in the UK even though they are still working and still happily run the Windows programmes they were designed for. These are computers that we paid £1,500 per machine for when they first came on the market. Yet for most companies it is now more "cost-efficient" to write these machines off against tax than it is to re-cycle or re-use them so they are thrown in skips and end up bespoiling the British countyside. In South Africa, a country with a modern first world economy and advanced technical and commercial infrastructure, computer literacy is an essential pre-requisite for more or less any decent job, just as it is in the UK. Yet in South Africa's black townships it is still the case that 95% of students (14 million children) are attending schools which provide no computer literacy at all. Without these skills they remain locked into the poverty cycle despite the fact that there is a severe IT skills shortage in the country. Computer Aid International exists to take unwanted computers from the UK and (after fully testing and recycling them) to provide them at no charge to schools and community organisations in developing countries where they can immediately be put to productive use. So far Computer Aid has sent 3,650 computers to 23 different countries. (March 2000) To continue this work we need: Donations of computers - 486 and above Volunteer technicians for our workshops in North London and Southampton Donations of money to cover our warehouse rental and shipping costs For more information contact: Angela Anyiam Computer Aid International 129 Seven Sisters Road London, N7 7QG |