Computers for African Schools

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Computers for African Schools is a charity based in England which aims to give children in developing African countries the opportunitiy to gain experience with and understanding of computers and IT. As of 2007, it had sent over 13,000 computer systems to four main programme countries Zambia (6,000), Zimbabwe (3,000), Malawi (2,500) and Zanzibar (260). Small amounts have also been donated to schemes in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Niger, Ethiopia and Liberia. In excess of 850 schools have computer labs set up through the scheme. Every state and mission secondary school in Zambia has now been provided with at least 10 computers through the scheme. The computers are donated free to the schools and two teachers from each recipient school are trained to teach IT as a subject. The programmes in the recipient countries are administered by local NGOs (Computers for Zambian Schools, Malawian Schools, Zimbabwean Schools and Zanzibar Schools, respectively.)

The following article in the Times Educational Supplement describes the work of CFAS to date [1]and the organisation is listed by the umbrella resource Digital Dividend [2]

The computers are recycled from redundant hardware donated by businesses in the UK. Currently nothing less than a Pentium III specification is used. CFAS works in close collaboration with IT Schools Africa and a lot of the computers are refurbished by ITSA using volunteers who make sure that the computers are checked and parts replaced if necessary and hard drives are wiped to US Ministry of Defence standards. The majority of the computers are refurbished by prisoners in a range of prisons throughout England as part of rehabilitation training. Once in Africa, through agreement with Microsoft, Windows operating system and Office is installed.

When donated computers reach end of life or are found to be unservicable, the local CFAS administering NGO collects them from the schools and they are shipped to a recycling plant in Johannesburg run by DESCO. DESCO has a zero land fill policy and all materials are recycled.

It is the long-term aim of CFAS to enable every state secondary pupil in the recipient countries to have access to computer lessons and to ensure the sustainability of the scheme.