London Press Service
Informs
COMPUTER CHARITY IMPROVES EDUCATION IN AFRICAN SCHOOLS
More than 31 million personal computers are thrown away each year worldwide. Apart from adding to the scrap mountain or helping to exhaust landfill sites, another downside of this IT waste is that many of them could be repaired or updated and used by people who do not need the very latest equipment that manufacturers seek to persuade us to buy.
And one charity – Digital Pipeline – is calling for organisations to give it the equipment they no longer need or use to allow its staff to redeploy it to underprivileged schools and community groups right across Africa.
Statistics show that fewer than one in 250 decommissioned computers is made available for disadvantaged communities. Digital Pipeline of the United Kingdom has created a federation of certified organisations that work together after an initial donation is agreed, to carry out PC collection, the secure wiping of data, testing and refurbishment, then the shipping to overseas destinations and installation in schools.
Working through local public-private partnerships, the federation includes additional services such as teacher training and technical support. When PCs reach their end of life, Digital Pipeline agents facilitate collection and responsible recycling, managing to recycle 90 per cent of materials.
By giving up PCs that have reached the end of their useful business life, companies across the UK can help ensure that disadvantaged communities have the necessary access to technology to further educate children and enable them to participate in the information society.
“Evidence shows that for every computer donated through redeployment programmes, 25 children become ‘digitally included’,” said a spokesperson. “With this sort of multiplier effect, PCs donated through Digital Pipeline can really make a difference to the learning, employability and life chances of young people in Africa.”
UK-registered charity Digital Pipeline was founded by Microsoft and recently launched after two years of planning and preparation, with the aim to foster digital inclusion for disadvantaged communities.
Importantly, for every PC that Digital Pipeline provides to Africa, it uniquely ensures that one computer is collected and recycled responsibly at the end of its “second life”.
This means that donated PCs are not dumped abroad but are recycled in an ethical fashion that complies with the European Commission’s Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment Directive that came into force in July 2007.
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Password to learning: children from Eden primary school, in Okahanja village in Namibia with donated computer equipment. It is supplied by UK charity Digital Pipeline that refurbishes and redeploys PCs to schools and community groups across Africa. |
“Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that ICT [information and communications technology] must figure prominently in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people in extreme poverty by 2015,” said Mark East, chairman of Digital Pipeline’s board of trustees.
“Digital Pipeline’s goal is to help UK companies contribute by donating PCs to African schools. We are trying to show UK businesses that they can make a real difference to the lives of people living in poverty by simply making better decisions when it comes to IT equipment that is being replaced,” added East who is also senior director of the Education Solutions Group, Microsoft Europe, Middle East & Africa.
Recently, the charity has received its largest, single-source donation up to now – 30,000 PCs from EDS. The PCs, which have been in use at EDS clients in the commercial and public sector, are being refurbished and sent to a number of African countries with the first shipment going to Kenya.
EDS vice-president Kevin Torgerson said: “We strongly support Digital Pipeline’s agenda and have chosen to donate 30,000 PCs from across our commercial and public-sector client base as it is a way for us to give something significant back to the wider community. We can also be confident that Digital Pipeline is providing all of the necessary controls, so that PCs can be disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way – a key consideration for EDS.”
Digital Pipeline trustee Wim Blonk added: “SchoolNet Africa is campaigning for an additional one million PCs to be provided for African schools. Digital Pipeline strongly supports this ambition as we believe it will help underprivileged communities to develop a better education infrastructure and to develop key skills to improve employability prospects.
“One of the charity’s primary goals was to ensure that a process was put in place that would enable technology to reach schools in the places that need it most such as Africa. The feedback we are receiving from education ministers in countries receiving these PCs is that the charity is now doing just that and we have received requests and ministerial support from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Madagascar and Zambia,” he added.
Digital Pipeline is an independently run, not-for-profit organisation working. Current certified partners include Computer Aid International, Digital Links International, RDC Limited and Remploy e-cycle.
Through the charity’s work, more than 10,000 students benefit from weekly access to ICT to improve their education, health and future employment prospects. A single shipment of 400 PCs provides 20 African schools with ICT facilities.
By Richard Maino
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