Green IT Toolkit

Bridge the digital divide with your old PCs

Matt Loney ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 20 Dec 2004 12:05 GMT

An initiative that helps companies and individuals donate old PCs to good causes went live last week. The site, called www.bridgethedigitaldivide.com, lets people submit details of computing equipment they would like to donate, or to make a donation to Computer Aid.

It was built as a partnership between ZDNet UK's parent company CNET Networks and Computer Aid International.

Donations will help school children in developing countries gain essential vocational skills in IT. They will also help not-for-profit organisations run more efficiently and effectively. These organisations will then be better equipped to serve the needs of their communities in fields as diverse as HIV/Aids prevention, human rights, environment and conflict prevention.

Computer Aid International is a UK-registered, not-for-profit organisation working to bridge the divide between the developing and the developed world. It was established in 1998 to address an urgent demand for quality, refurbished PCs in the developing world. It is now the world's largest non-profit supplier of refurbished computers to schools and community organisations in developing countries, having secured over 42,000 computer donations to date. Of these, 40,000 have been shipped to over 5,000 schools and not-for-profit groups in 90 different developing countries in the past six years.

You can donate a PC here, or make a financial donation here.