An Apple a day helps young Africans learn

Eleven Apple Macintosh computers once used to create the Meath Chronicle every week are winging their way to Ethiopia this week where they will be put to good use teaching young children IT skills in a local school. The Chronicle last week presented some of its now obsolete IT hardware to the charity group Camara, which was established three years ago in Dublin to use Irish technological resources to help schools in Africa. The computers were no longer required by the newspaper after it moved to a new PC-based publishing system installed by DTI in May and had been planning to recycle the machines when it came across Camara, which takes in second-hand computers that have been discarded by Irish businesses and organisations, refurbishes them and sends them to schools and colleges in sub-Sahara Africa. Camara points out that Africa needs some 270 million additional computers to give it the same level of IT coverage as exists in Ireland today. However, with an average per capita income of $1 per day and millions starving, priorities for funding are understandably directed elsewhere. The organisation operates in seven African countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, where unwanted Irish computers are put to good use in educational institutions. It also sends out groups of volunteers who teach African teachers basic computer literacy skills or more advanced technological know-how. In fact, a teacher from Trim, Mary Earle, is currently a volunteer in Uganda where she has been going around schools in that country, teaching staff how to use and operate computers sent over from Ireland. Camara will send some 5,000 to 6,000 unwanted computers to Africa this year. All the machines need to be of a certain minimum specification and be no more than five or six years-old. For more information on the group and its activities, log onto www.camara.ie.