Recycling Lives and Computers

Nowadays, if you can't log on you may feel a little left out. Just ask Barbara Sheppard and her daughter, Christina. They know how difficult life can be without a computer. "I'm a student at Savannah Tech," Barbara says, "and I need to have a computer to get in touch with my teachers to do the class work and homework assignments... and they do everything by e-mail."

Now, Barbara and her daughter have access to e-mail and the internet at home, and it's all because of All Walks Of Life, Inc. and it's IT program, "The Goon Squad".

Through grants and with the help of trained volunteers, the program takes at-risk youth and teaches them how to clean and repair donated computers and load them with open source software.

Those computers are then given away- free of charge- to low-income families and small non-profit organizations. "Each P-C that we get, we give to a low-income family who meets federal poverty guidelines so that they can have a computer in the home," says AWOL co-founder DaVena Jordan.

The purpose is to close the digital divide. "Statistically, we have shown that our community has a very high rate of poverty, making broadband subscribership and access to computers very hard for some people."

AWOL hopes to make it easier, not only for the folks in the community, but also for the environment by cutting down on e-waste. "We have tons and tons of computers that are thrown away in the country everyday," says Jordan. "It's just a simple equation- you take something that somebody doesn't want and give it to somebody who needs it, and protect the environment at the same time. And we decided we wanted to do that with kids."

Jordan's husband and co-founder of AWOL adds that in the end, recycling comes full circle. Changing lives... by giving new life to old computers.
"We're training the kids... recycling the computers. But we're also recycling the kids... recycling families... having them... training them to have a different thought process."

So far the program has been extremely successful. AWOL is currently, receiving more than 100 donated computers a week that need to be refurbished. But they're running out of space to store them. They also need RAM (Random Access Memory Sticks) to make them functional.

In the meantime, AWOL is trying to buy enough RAM to give out 300 computers to Savannah Chatham County Public Schools before school starts. Community members can purchase a refurbished machine with educational applications already loaded for a $50 donation.

Links:

Go to this link to apply for a refurbished computer.

Link to the open source operating system AWOL uses. Ubuntu is and African word which means "humanity to others". This philosophy of sharing is the FOUNDATION of AWOL's computer technology training program: http://www.ubuntu.com/

Click here to learn more about the meaning of Ubuntu from one of the world's most noted humanitarian, former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0qGJCm-qU

If you'd like to help or if you're in need of a computer, click here: awolinc.org
or call (912) 303-4987.

To download a printable application, click here: Free Compute Application