10,000th recycled computer on way to Africa (22/09/06)
PA News
Published:
22 September 2006
A collaboration between a group based in Reading and Bristol and a Cheltenham charity is sending its 10,000th recycled computer to Africa.
The programme - a joint venture between Computers for African Schools and IT Schools Africa - marked the milestone at a ceremony attended by Mike Tembo and Chris Mumba from the Zambian arm of the project.
CFAS, based in Bristol and Reading, has been sending recycled computers to schools in Africa for more than six years.
Cheltenham-based ITSA was set up in 2004 to send computers to the continent to promote education and cross-cultural communication.
The programme has initiatives in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, has supplied recycled computers to more than 600 schools and institutions, trained hundreds of teachers in IT and given 500,000 children access to technology.
The project donates the computers free of charge to all state secondary schools in the recipient countries, offers training and disposes of the machines once they are no longer useful.
The group also has an agreement with Microsoft to install Windows and Office free of charge.
Before the campaign started, the majority of state high school students in Africa were graduating without computer experience but now governments are starting to introduce IT to the curriculum.
CFAS chairman Dr Barry Haley said: "A major cause of lack of development in the countries we work in is a shortage of basic IT skills among the workforce.
"Our projects are invaluable because they give the opportunity to all school leavers, rather than just the more privileged, to get the IT skills they need to get decent jobs."
