Cybersociology Magazine: Issue Five

Field Report: Computer Aid International (submitted by Sonia Sinanan)

*Computer Aid International Will Send Your 2nd Hand PCs to the 3rd World*

Dear Readers of Cybersociology Magazine,

I am writing to let you know that on 10th March 1999 Computer Aid International is launching an appeal to build upon this success. We need computers of 386 or above but specifically we have a urgent shortage of monitors (VGA or SVGA). We currently have 500 tested 486s ready to go to South Africa but we can't send them as 250 of them have no monitors! We also need modems (9600+), and external CD-ROMs (to enable schools to read ROM encyclopaedias etc).

We are also anxious to make contact with companies or institutions who can make their warehouse space available to us to store tested and packed PCs waiting for shipment and anyone who can help us with road transport of donations within the UK. The high cost of storage space and the lack of our own vehicle are our most serious limitations at present.

Following our success last year I would like to thank all of you who published information about our appeal. As a result we were able to send over 1,800 PCs to schools and community organisations in developing countries overseas. The publicity we received also encouraged many new people to volunteer in our repair workshops and as local collectors all over the UK.

Computer Aid International is a registered charity set up to recycle PCs being discarded in the UK for use in education, health and community organisations in developing countries. This equipment would otherwise end up collecting dust in backrooms or attics. Worse still it could end up as one of the 1 million PCs buried in countryside landfill-sites every year in the UK.

We have already sent over 1,800 PCs to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Romania, Bosnia, Nicaragua, and Ghana. Overseas these computers are enthusiastically put to good use by people who would otherwise have no access to computer technology.

We would ask that anyone wishing to donate a modem or CD-ROM post it direct to us at our warehouse: Computer Aid International, ABC Self Storage Centre, 145 York Way, London N7. (Please note this is the warehouse address for receipt of donations only and is not our office and correspondence address which is included below). We will try to arrange collection of any volume donations, should the donor be unable to deliver to us, though our network of volunteer collectors around the country.

Anyone able to offer any kind of help is welcome to email us at [email protected]

If you require any further information or images of work overseas please contact Sonia Sinanan or Tony Roberts on 0171 281 0091.

Thank you in advance for your interest in our organisation and your efforts on our behalf.

Yours sincerely,

Sonia Sinanan, Operations Manager

Registered Charity no. 1069256

Registered Company no. 3442679

Founded: April 1997

Officially Launched: June 1998

Sonia Sinanan is the operations manager for Computer Aid International. She may be reached at [email protected]

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