Your laptop is coming to the end of its life, your office computers need replacing, and it’s really time for a whizzy new printer.
So what do you do? Take them to a recycling centre? Or donate them to Computers4Africa, an Aylesford, Kent-based charity whose slogan is “Change a child’s life when you change your PC”.
Sharon Roberts from Computers4Arica recently presented to a Wealden Business Group breakfast meeting. Her appeal for businesses to donate their old or surplus IT equipment to the charity was underpinned by some powerful messages…
- All equipment is completely wiped of data and fitted with a new operating system before it is cleaned, packed and sent to Africa.
- The charity has delivered computers to 25 African countries, where 1.75 million people, particularly youngsters, are using them to better their education and lives.
- Just one computer enhances the education of up to 24 students a year, boosting their skills, and enabling them to find jobs paying up to three times the national average.
- Recycling computers has a significant environmental benefit – your old computer will no longer just become hazardous waste material.
- Donating IT kit to Computers4Africa is a tangible element of any company’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme (and CSR is now an essential pre-qualification for many public sector contracts).
- Donated equipment should be working, less than eight years old or minimum Pentium 4.
For further information, contact Computers4Africa tel: 03000 11 22 33, or email business@computers4africa.org.uk. The charity’s website is www.computers4africa.org.uk
