World Computer Exchange, Inc.
Bridging the Global Digital Divide for Youth
For
more information, contact:
Timothy Anderson in USA + 781-925-3078 or timothy@WorldComputerExchange.org or
Dr. Wawa Ngenge in Cameroon +237-222490 or wangenge@sdnp.cm
Boston,
Massachusetts, USA (May 17, 2001): A container
filled with 380 computers and monitors for schools in Cameroon has just sailed
from Boston. It is expected to arrive
in the port of Douala, Cameroon on June 12th. The computers were donated by 15 businesses
and other organizations to the World Computer Exchange of Hull,
Massachusetts. The computers will be
arranged in networks of computers in 34 schools with over 17,000 students in
the region around Yaounde, Cameroon.
The
schools in Cameroon were recruited, trained, and prepared by the Exchange’s
partner, the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Cameroon as
part of its SchoolNet Cameroon Initiative.
SDNP Cameroon became a partner of the Exchange in October of 2000. SDNP is led in Cameroon by their National
Coordinator Dr. Wawa Ngenge (http://www.sdnp.undp.org/sdncmr/wawa.htm).
The
Sustainable Development Networking Programme of the United Nations (http://www.sdnp.undp.org) is paying the
shipping costs of the International Freight Transport.
Among
the volunteers who volunteered for a day helping to prepare and pack the
computers into the container were a team of twelve from City Year Boston and a
team of 22 students from the Youth Technology Entrepreneurs chapter at Waltham
High School. Sponsored by a grant from
Youth Venture, some volunteer students from the Technology Project at the South
Shore Charter School helped to prepare many of the computers and recruit some
US partner schools.
The
Exchange offers a simple and efficient option for US businesses. “The Exchange van stopped by and picked up
our dozen computers and monitors. We
didn’t have to pay a recycler to remove our equipment and we felt great knowing
that the computers were going to have a new life connecting schools,” said
Kelly Goodwin of the Merchant Bank Group of Imperial Bank’s offices in Boston.
The
Exchange partners with businesses, educational institutions and other
organizations to gather computers, to help maintain them after installation and
to recruit both U.S. and foreign schools to participate in a cross-cultural and
educational exchange program.
"Our
main goal in donating the computers is to help underprivileged students communicate
in a wired world that many Americans take for granted,” said Joseph H. Rossi,
Tolland Bank CEO/President. “We would like to see more U.S. schools and
businesses help the Exchange carry out their mission.” Tolland Bank of
Connecticut recently donated 10 Internet-ready computers to the World Computer
Exchange.
Currently,
the Exchange is working with over 700 schools in 24 countries that are
interested in being partnered with interested US K-12 schools. So far, about fifty U.S. elementary and high
schools throughout New England, California and Illinois have volunteered to be
partnered with the overseas schools.
Exchange president, Timothy Anderson, hopes that many more U.S.
companies will donate computers and more US schools will be willing to form
simple partnerships with these overseas schools.
“The $80,000 worth of used computers that
these companies generously donated would have cost many times that to purchase
new in Cameroon. They will help
students in Cameroon to bridge divides to new information, to new partner
schools in the US, and to new markets for small businesses in their
communities,” said Anderson. “That is why we are trying to get the word out
that we offer another option to placing working computers in landfills or
melting them down – we can give these used computers new lives connecting
schools in poor countries around the world.”
The
World Computer Exchange, headquartered in Hull, Massachusetts, is an
educational organization working to connect poor youth to the Internet. WCE President Timothy Anderson founded the
Exchange in 1999 with a team from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University as a brokering organization to help overseas nonprofits to
prepare and connect their local schools to the Internet and to partner schools
in the US. The Exchange currently sends
several containers per year full of computers and is beginning to help teams of
tech-savvy US students to go and visit and provide technical training in
exchange for learning more about other cultures and history. For more information visit www.worldcomputerexhange.org.
The
380 computers and monitors and assorted networking equipment currently enroute
to Cameroon were donated by the following fifteen organizations: Aquent,
Cambridge Prepress, Center For International Development at Harvard University,
Daman Consulting (Texas), Houghton Mifflin, Imperial Bank, Institute for Youth
Enterprise, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Kalish
Communications (Missouri), Magellan Behavioral Specialties (Maryland), Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Own The World Computer Services, Radcliffe, Tolland
Bank (Connecticut), the Town of Hull, and several individuals who shipped
computers to Hull from around the country.
Several of the companies listed responded to an article about the
Exchange in the Wall Street Journal. Several
of these companies agreed to give a continuing flow of computers to the
Exchange whenever they upgrade their equipment.
In
early February, the Government of Cameroon and the United Nations Development
Programme office in Cameroon both formally included SchoolNet Cameroon in the
UNDP’s ICT for Development Programme for the 24-month period starting in April
and identified the Exchange, SchoolNet's partner in computer donations for
schools, as an official SchoolNet Cameroon partner.
You
can view SDNP Cameroon’s thoughtful and detailed implementation plan
and draft list of schools at http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/partner_docs/Cameroon-SDNP-Plan.doc. Their packing list / invoice and duty forms
can be viewed at http:www.worldcomputerexchange.org/partners_documents/Cameroon-SDNP-Documents3.doc.
The
Exchange has also just worked with Citizens International sending a container
of computers and books to Rivers State University of Science and Technology
in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The next
planned Exchange shipments will be to Nepal, Benin, Ecuador, Bangladesh, India,
and Uganda.
936 Nantasket Ave. t Hull t Massachusetts t 02045 t USA t 781.925.3078 tFAX: 509.752.9186
timothy@WorldComputerExchange.org t www.WorldComputerExchange.org