Computers which we repair go to people who really need them, here in Scotland and overseas.
Since 1999 Reusing IT has provided over 5,000 PCs where they are most needed in East and West Africa and to NGO’s throughout Scotland. Our computers have been used amongst other things for educating primary and secondary schoolchildren, training medical, nursing and pharmacy students, and providing vital equipment for school secretaries and staff from NGOs doing valuable support work in developing countries.
We might typically receive request for 100 computers to be distributed, from High Schools in Kenya to an NGO desperate for any computers because they have dozens of staff ‘sharing’ two PCs. We undertake an IT audit with any potential partner to ensure that they will be able to make best use of what we supply.
In addition to our work in Africa, in 2011 we began to distribute computers to low income families throughout West Lothian, based on need expressed by local headteachers. This directly addressed the fact that some young people were disadvantaged in doing homework and in accessing educational resources by not having computers, and they were falling behind their peers by not gaining skills in computer use at home.
This has now become a Scotland-wide project working with other agencies to assist families in poverty to have access to computers within their homes.