Irish charity Camara Education will offer free computer reuse to people looking to dispose of unwanted computers for the month of January.

Camara Education, a social enterprise and charity, specialises in the re-use of computers to educate children in disadvantaged schools in sub-Saharan Africa, Jamaica and Ireland. Camara Education refurbishes computers sourced from Irish businesses, government departments and individuals, loads them with educational software and distributes them to disadvantaged schools. This enables thousands of marginalised communities’ an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty they find themselves in.

To date Camara has dispatched over 27,000 computers in this way, improving education for over half a million disadvantaged children and giving them the opportunity to acquire the digital literacy skills needed for the 21st century.

This year alone the charity has processed and shipped over 9,000 computers as the demand for affordable technology increases year on year. Currently Camara’s partner Hub in Kenya has 200 under-resourced schools on a waiting list to receive Camara computers and training. A similar situation is seen by Camara’s partner Hubs in Zambia, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Jamaica.

Due to this ever growing demand, Camara is offering a free computer reuse option for the Irish public in January. The case for reuse before eventual recycling is very compelling. With up to 200,000 computers thrown out each year in Ireland, many of these could be reused by disadvantaged communities both at home in Ireland and abroad.

With Camara, each reused computer has a positive educational impact for at least 10 disadvantaged children each year. Each computer also defers the release of 650kg of CO2 emissions.

To reuse your old computer for the purpose of education, Camara’s drop-off location is in Chapelizod Industrial Estate, Dublin 20 open Monday to Friday and late Thursday evening from January 3rd.

Camara also has drop off centres in Townsend Enterprise Park, Townsend Street, Belfast and on Distillery Road, as part of the National University of Ireland in Galway. For further information, please call 01 685 7121.