News from Carrickmacross

Lions Club wants your old computer

by Joe McCabe, Apex News & Public Relations

CARRICKMACROSS Lions Club is requesting that you give your old PC a good home and recycle it for the people of Africa.

However, computers must be in working order and a €25 donation is required to cover the costs of shipping, secure wiping of hard drive, etc. You can contact Carrickmacross Lions Club @ 087 2271090 or 087 6403416.

The Lions Club will be supplying old PCs to 'Camara' a well- established volunteer organisation dedicated to using technology to deliver education more effectively to disadvantaged communities in Africa.

Camara takes in used computers from Irish companies and individuals, wipe the machine hard drives of data (in line with US Department of Defense standards), refurbish and load them with educational software before setting them up in Learning Centres in schools in Africa and Ireland.

The local lion Club is accepting Monitors, Hard Drives, Keyboards and Mice or Laptops.

Camara trains teachers to use these computers as tools to improve the delivery of education to their students. This training is done by volunteers who travel from Ireland to these countries mainly during the Summer holidays.

Volunteers work in seven African countries Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Uganda and have set up local Technology Hubs that act as partners in delivering the Camara educational model directly to schools. Camara’s European headquarters is in the Digital Hub, Dublin and their African headquarters is in Kampala, Uganda.