Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2006/02/28/computer_aid_international_profile/
Old PCs for new uses
Computer Aid bridges the Digital Divide
Posted in On-Prem, 28th February 2006 13:12 GMT
Last year it was time for The Register to move offices. Lying in a small box-room were half a dozen or so redundant computers, unused since our previous move. We decided to get rid of them, but a colleague, John Leyden, had a better idea: he contacted Computer Aid International, the UK's biggest computer recycling charity, which promptly collected our unwanted PCs. This removed our disposal headache, and gave us a warm fuzzy glow.
The Register was one of hundreds of PC donors to Computer Aid in 2005. The list includes many public sector and charities. Prominent supporters from the private sector are thinner on the ground but include huge names such as BA, Shell, Swiss RE and Allied Domecq.
collaborative thinking. It brings together the need for organisations in the West to safely and legally dispose of obsolete but still-working PCs, with the needs of organisations in the developing world for affordable PCs. Computer Aid is not the only UK organisation to do this, and possibly not even the first, but it is by far the biggest.
From its headquarters in London's Holloway Road, the charity supplied 16,000 PCs in 2005 to dozens of educational and community organisations all over the developing world.
Recipients include the British Council Eritrea, which has installed computers refurbished by Computer Aid to every public library in the country. The project is now rolling out to every school library in Eritrea.
In Rwanda, Computer Aid is sending thousands of refurbs to secondary schools, complementing the Government's budget which has financed 4,000 new PCs for the sector. It is also rolling out 2,000 Computer Aid PCs to health institutions across the country.
This year, Computer Aid aims to supply 25,000 PCs. It estimates that each PC provides 6,000 hours of access, so 2006's batch will deliver 125m hours for ICT in education and ICT for development.
And very affordable they are too: Computer Aid can supply PCs for as little as £39 each, plus shipping. It charges a handling fee to cover costs, but recipients rarely pay: typically, the tab is picked up by intermediaries such as government agencies, charities and other NGOs, or sometimes even corporates.
Off the Shelf
Computer Aid International has 16 staff on its books and another 16 volunteers and people on work experience. This comprises techies, fundraisers, and foreign language specialists. The organisation also has two programme officers, in South Africa and Kenya, who liaise with local non-profit organisations seeking affordable PCs.
Computer Aid's London HQ is, appropriately enough, a refurbished warehouse. The charity occupies 10,000sqft, most of which is taken up by three workshops. The first is filled with PCs waiting for inspection; a second room is filled with PCs being data wiped using Blancco software. The software also captures the PC specification, making it easy for Computer Aid to decide where it should go next. New software is also added at this point.
The third "workshop" is in reality the warehouse. This looks like much like any standard PC distribution outlet: it is packed to the gunwales with computers, monitors and keyboards, mostly boxed and ready to ship. Along one wall, the racks are filled with rejects - broken equipment, sub-spec PCs - destined for clean disposal.
The PCs sits on industry-standard racking and are moved by forklift - both donated by distribution companies. And the computers are not bad workhorses, either - at time of writing, the minimum spec is Pentium III with 128MB RAM and CD-ROM drives as standard. Most are pre-installed with Microsoft software, supplied by the software giant at the knock-down price of £2 per licence. Computer Aid can also provide PCs with free and open source software.
To date, the supply of computers for Computer Aid has been "effectively infinite", Computer Aid chief executive Tony Roberts says. "This year, the UK alone is expected to decommission two million Pentium IIIs - so our requirements are just a drop in the ocean." There is plenty to go around for other PC refurb charities too, he says.
But demand is rising. SchoolNet Africa, for example, has launched an appeal for one million donated PCs to be refurbished for re-use in African schools. Computer Aid is the largest non-profit organisation contributing PCs to SchoolNet Africa projects, to date supplying 20,000 PCs in 35 African countries. Since Computer Aid installed an order form on its website, requests for PCs have come from all over the world.
This was intended for organisations in the UK to request PCs to support their overseas project, but unexpectedly the website has provided a route to Computer Aid from non-profits. "A typical request would be a development project from, say, Indonesia. They would tell us that they had money to buy two new PCs, but would much rather buy 25 PCs from us. We couldn't find a reason to say no," Roberts says. Upshot, Computer Aid has supplied refurbs to 98 countries, rather more than the four or five that Roberts had envisaged when he set up the charity in 1999.
So with demand growing, will supply keep up? While millions of PCs become obsolete, rather fewer end up be re-used.
Corporates tend to buy higher-specced machines than their public sector counterparts - and they decommission them sooner. But they are markedly more reluctant to release PCs for re-use, according to Roberts. Security fears are to blame for this. The WEEE Directive, which manages to be both very boring and very expensive, should help the cause of re-using - as opposed to trashing or recycling - computers. But two stumbling blocks remain in the way of getting those PCs to development projects.
Stubborn stains
Conservative IT staff are the first hurdle to overcome, says Roberts. “Often we get the support of the CEO or IT director, but then run into some hostile IT people." Computer Aid is a professional PC refurbishing outfit and it uses Blancco to remove all stubborn stains and data from donor PCs. But this is not enough to persuade many IT managers they encounter. "If the CEO is determined enough," Robert says, "we can overcome their opposition, but usually he or she has other things to worry about."
The second barrier is erected by the big PC makers and resellers, which are developing their own elaborate decommissioning schemes in response to the WEEE Directive. The purpose of these is to sweat the residual value of the PCs, and that means fewer PCs may be made available for organisations such as Computer Aid.
"We would much rather companies simply donated their PCs," Roberts says. "Because, otherwise, the PCs don't go to help development projects in poor countries. The companies have already written off the computers' value. And they can still work with their OEM – all they have to do is put a tick in the box, specifying that the PCs should go to the charity of their choice."
So, stubborn IT people and uncooperative hardware suppliers? Sounds like your typical Reg readers, then. But on this score, we are on the side of the angels. Donating PCs for use in development project does make a significant difference.
Tomorrow we'll publish the first of a short series of case studies from Kenya, where Computer Aid has supplied 5,000 PCs to many projects. ®