The organisation recently passed the 40,000 mark, equivalent to over £2m worth of computers on the basis that Computer Aid values each one at £50. The value to the recipients however, which can be anything from schools to local not-for-profit projects, is much higher.
Chief executive Tony Roberts is the man behind the Computer Aid International venture. His inspiration for setting up the organisation came from witnessing the need for computers in developing nations first hand while working with an aid organisation in Southern Africa during the mid-90s.
"I saw organisations who wanted to bring in computers, but computers then cost a lot of money, and the people could not look forward to a time when they might be able to afford them," says Roberts. "At the same time, we saw that back in the UK the market would become saturated, but this really came home to us when we were preparing to send a volunteer to Nicaragua to help develop a large database application."
Roberts explains that the volunteer's local newspaper ran a story that included a plea to readers for computers he could take with him. The story generated offers of 320 PCs. "So we spun off Computer Aid as a separate charity", says Roberts. "We ran it with no full-time paid staff until Y2K, when CIOs started kicking out their 486 PCs. Since then we've grown by 50 to 100 percent every year."
Donations are expected to rise again this year as the WEEE directive comes into force, which effectively outlaws landfilling of old PCs. "We estimated that 2 million PCs are landfilled every year in the UK alone," says Robert. "Nigeria's schools alone could absorb those PCs. There is a huge potential supply and demand. The big job now is to raise the money it costs to refurbish them."
You can donate old PCs, sign up for the Digital Divide newsletter or donate cash to support Computer Aid's refurbishing efforts through BridgeTheDigitalDivide.com, which is run in conjunction with ZDNet UK's parent company CNET Networks UK.
Everything is considered for refurbishing, from routers and printers to PCs and servers. ZDNet UK went along to Computer Aid's facility on London's Holloway Road to see how it's done.
The mouse that roared: Chief executive Tony Roberts has seen Computer Aid grow by 50 to 100 percent every year since its inception.
Refurbishing: Blancco software is used to wipe disks to government standards, even though and this uses all components, they are subsequently retested. Over 1,500 PCs pass through this workshop every month.
Not just PCs: Computer Aid also ships printers, servers, routers - pretty much anything that will help an organisation build its IT infrastructure. Unserviceable kit is sent to be recycled - none of it ends up in landfills.
Quality kit: Occasionally Computer Aid is asked to clear out offices of brand new equipment, and some organisations end up with some pretty nice kit.
Waiting to go: Each PC costs £39 to refurbish and £11 to ship. Aside from taking donated equipment, Computer Aid also accepts cash donations to help cover these costs.
Ready to go: One palette of a shipment destined for Uganda. Every computer sent has to fit into these boxes, which allows the palettes to be stacked four by five into containers.
Talkback
Hmmm so what hapened to those 486 machines in Africa tha UK CIOs 'kicked out'. They just end up being dumped in African countried that dont have controlled landfills - now how does this benefit the environment or anyone else apart from the owner of this Computer Aid outfit ? The whole idea behand WEEE directive is to get away from this, now why is ZDNET supporting somehting like this is beyond me. They collect PCs that are waste and sell them to africa for 50 quid - that sounds like a business not a charity. Second hand PCs costs that much in the UK so where is the benefit and how do we know that these PCs are going to Africa to the schools with all the corruption ???
how do we know these PCs are going to schools and why not let the african schools buy from local busiesses not ruin them ever further by importing PCs that are given away or dumped in UK and further destroying to local computer businesses in Africa ???
In response to the two comments above, I should make a couple of points that were perhaps not exmplained fully in the article:
First, Computer Aid is a registerd charity, not a company, and thus does not have an 'owner'.
Second, the charity does not sell the PCs to Africa "for 50 quid"; that figure relates to the cost of refurbishing and shipping the PCs, and is raised by fundraising activities or is paid for by organisations such as Oxfam or Unicef who are working on the ground with local projects to identify needs.
Third, to assume that the PCs are not going to schools "because of the corruption" is a sweeping statement that does a great disservice to the people of Africa.
Fourth, the concern about the computers ending up in landfills in Africa is a valid one, but who are we in the UK to tell people in Africa that they should not be allowed PCs because we don't think they will dispose of them properly? That seems to be a very condescending attitude.
And fifth, I accept that aid can disrupt local business (Do you ship food into a disaster area and put local producers out of business, or use money to buy food from local business thereby driving local prices sky high?). But these computers are going to organisations who would otherwise not be able to afford them. Local businesses would not benefit if Computer Aid stopped shipments, because the recipient organisations still would not be buying them. By providing this equipment, computing skills can be developed which will in the long run aid local economies.
And finally, if you want to criticise an operation like this, please have the decency to put your name against your comments.
Dear Matt, it is good to see idealist like you ara still around but if you look at their website it says in there that they charge for these PCs ( a service charge).
So it seems that the prices (service fees) they charge for old PCs are basically second-hand market prices so basically it appears that this is just a second-hand computer business. Perhaps you might care to expalin as some of your readers dont seem to grasp this.
Also, where is the audit trail to show what happens to the kit and where it ends up ? Perhaps you could kindly publish that on your website as well.
the 'away' in thrown away just means 'somehwere else' - this is like finding some old medicines you forgot to take, and then giving them to some random homeless person - bloody dangerous - what happens to these machines when they are in economies that for one reason or another do not even attempt to recycle - what about all the dangerous chemicals then? Yes, its a nice idea to send our worries and redundant hardware overseas, but when the hardware can be seriously poisonous is this really ethical ...?
According to the WEEE Directive (and this article is about Recycling and WEEE) - It is illegal to send Electronic Waste (WEEE) to countries where such equipment can not be recycled in the same way it would be recycled within the EU. Remember WEEE is contains Hazardous substances.
WEEE directive is meant to protect the environment from dumping and landfilling, so how shifting the problem to African countries that do not have the same recycling resources as UK presents a solution ?
Also shouldnt it be a priority of some media organisaitons and their Corporate Social Responsibility to support organisations that send food, water and install electricity generators in poor African villages first, before promoting someone that appears to sell (charge service charge) computers (that UK Companies throw away) to underdeveloped world and calls it charity ?
Please help us in giving us 1 laptop for our association the Lughu Community Youth Development Association (LCYDA).
LCYDA is a non profitable organization here in Solomon Islands focus in providing information and new technology to young girls and boys and children living in rural areas in Solomon Islands.
The laptop will help our work easier as we using pen to write all our reports and other tasks. Your help will make things easier of our organization.
Thank you for your excellent web sites.
We do appreciate your work of donating second hand computers to no profit organization .
There fore i,am talking on behalf of kangai rural Development Foundation is a non profit organisation working with community ,so our humble request to your organisation is to help us with two computers set for our office work, because we are unable to request many computers ,although we have alot of programme concerning training the youth and community due to some financial constrance which can enable us to make a shipment from uk to uganda.
thank you for you co-operation towards this request
Francis Ejang Ajuk
cordinator