‌The UK based charity collects surplus PCs, screens, keyboards, etc. and refurbishes them for distribution to schools in Africa. A win-win situation, the University saves on disposal costs, sends perfectly good equipment for reuse and contributes to transforming IT education in Africa. 

The Computers for Africa project started as a staff initiative and has since been supported and coordinated by the Sustainability Team.  The project has received widespread support from departments donating surplus equipment; staff and student volunteers packing up all donated items; and the University’s contractor Carillion delivering the loads for free to the charity. This has been the third successful round of donations with past contributions supporting the development of children’s IT skills in schools in Malawi and Kenya.

The great level of collaboration and demand for more donation opportunities has prompted the Sustainability Team to now allow departments to make computer donations all year round. In the New Year the Sustainability Team will look into designating collection points for surplus IT equipment, which will be collected in regular intervals for donations to Africa.

Please contact sustainability@swansea.ac.uk for more information about the project or visit the Sustainability website http://www.swansea.ac.uk/sustainability/.

Follow the Sustainability team on Twitter @SusSwansea or like the Swansea University Sustainability Team Facebook page.    

Picture 1: (left to right) Jane Nurse, Sustainability Team and  Emma Jones, Administrator of the College of Law, Swansea University.

Picture 2: Carillion staff packing the lorry.