Evergreen Online

The Newsletter of Wirral Environmental Network

August - October 2005

1. Wired. Computers for Africa

2. Oil's Well At Last. The Veg Oil Car; part three.

WIRED

The Masai Mara seems like the middle of nowhere; great expanses of land spread out in all directions. The Masai are famous the world over for their exuberant dancing, but now you are just as likely to find them sat in front of a PC monitor.

Five months ago Kilgoris Secondary School was one of the first within 100km to get computers. For the Masai schoolchildren that was the first time they ever used a PC. This equipment is simply too expensive for most school budgets, and while a Kenyan minister officially opened this computer lab, his government did not provide the computers.

The story of how thousands of Africans are learning technology skills starts at a lock-up warehouse in North London. It is the home of Computer Aid International, which gives old PCs a new life in developing nations.

The man behind the project receives more than 2,000 computers a month, many of which might otherwise have been thrown away. "We get donations of literally hundreds of computers at a time from universities, large corporations, right the way through to individual donations of a single machine that someone's brought from their home," said Tony Roberts, head of Computer Aid International. "All of those computers are extensively tested, cleaned and professionally refurbished here in the workshop. We select only the highest specification machines that we know are going to be working for another three or four years, and those are the machines that we provide to organisations overseas. We've reached the point where we've got more computers than we have organisations to distribute them to, so our priority is to identify new organisations in developing countries that can receive and distribute high volumes of computers.But importantly, alongside that they need to be providing training and technical support, to make sure every computer that we send is made productive use of."

At any one time up to 1,000 computers in the Computer Aid warehouse have been refurbished and are ready to go. Many go to Latin America and Eastern Europe, but the vast majority - eight out of ten are sent to Africa.

Since Computer Aid started, more than 40,000 second-hand computers have been sent to African nations. One of Africa's two main distribution centres is in Nairobi. Here, they are checked over again and operating systems are installed. African charities then take on a supervisory role, promising to maintain the PCs and teach others how to use them. Many end up in outlying areas like Kilgoris in Kenya, thanks to a special school charity.

"When schools receive computers I wish you could be there to see," said Tom Musili, from Computers For Schools Kenya. "The students are very happy and even the community comes to witness. It's a big achievement for a school, and if it's a school in one area you might find a migration of students from other schools without computers. So it has been received with very high enthusiasm."

After-school computer lessons and clubs, which use the newly arrived PCs, are proving popular. "The computers really have improved the education technology because we no longer write in class, we come and put our notes into computers," said Sammy Okombe, a pupil at Kilgoris Secondary School. "It has reduced the time in class that is consumed with writing."

Fellow pupil Elizabeth Momanyi said: "In terms of employment it has also improved a lot. After you finish High School it's easier to get a job with knowledge of computers."

On the outskirts of the Nairobi lies Kibera, Africa's biggest slum that is home to 800,000 people. Some families go without food here to get their children into one of a handful of schools. It is not safe to house computers on the school site, so each Saturday a class leaves to walk to a security-patrolled classroom.

On the way it is clear that even in the poorest areas people want to learn these skills. Adverts for computer courses are dotted around Nairobi, and in the slums too. The donated computers, which might well have been thrown away back in England, remain in the wrapping in which they were delivered, treated like the precious commodities they have now become.

At Nairobi's YMCA anyone can enrol for cut-price lessons on these imported second-hand computers. It is one of the few places where the computers have an internet connection and pupils can learn office software, such as Microsoft Word and Excel.

After four months of visiting the YMCA, Josephine Anyango got a job teaching others the skills she had learnt. She also found a little sideline too. "I've made letterheads, prospectuses, business cards, wedding cards," she said.

Despite the high adult literacy rate in Kenya, unemployment here is high, so after the sacrifices have been made to get through school, competition for jobs is fierce. It has left many believing they can get a vital edge by pinning their hopes on these new skills.

With many African governments unable to provide the technology their countries need, it is often left to charities to bring technology to the people.

It is a piecemeal approach, but for the lucky few it is a valuable insight into Africa's future.

Links:
www.computer-aid.org
www.computers4africa.org
www.digitaldividenetwork.org

We had purchased the conversion kit from Elsbett (www.elsbett.com) many months before and had made several enquiries about where to get it fitted. The choice seemed to be between ATG in Wolverhampton (www.dieselveg.com) or a local diesel mechanic who had never heard of the kit but was enthused by the idea. He was willing to give it a try but was unable to say how long it would take, and although we wanted to increase local knowledge of the idea it seemed a bit risky. In the end my husband, dad and brother took on the job during a family camping holiday. It seemed a good solution because not only were they interested in doing a conversion on their own cars, but they have more engineering and tinkering experience between them than I can imagine.

So Dad came with boxes of tools (luckily we had just bought a huge tent in which to store them) and on days where no excursions were planned, the menfolk would disappear under the bonnet, discussing everything at great length. Use was made of an old meander in the river to park the car on a slope to get better access underneath, and stop fuel coming from the tank while the fuel pipe was changed. From time to time calls were made to family members not yet arrived in the hope they could locate and bring further equipment. Most trips out included one of them nipping into garages or farming supply stores in Hay-on-Wye for the same reason. Elsbett were contacted a couple of times for clarification and were very helpful, technical and spoke excellent English.

By the end of the week I was impressed to discover that there were a couple of minor jobs left to be done at home but other than that it was done. By the sounds of things it was a good job they had tackled it themselves because so many workarounds had to be found at the last minute.

We encountered some teething troubles on the way home (at 1am in the middle of nowhere), which have since been resolved. I am told they forgot to tighten the bleed screw with a spanner. The car now runs happily on 100% and the performance is similar to diesel on its own. The exhaust smells great and can make you hungry. We have an Elsbett sticker on the car which has attracted a lot of interest.

A by-product of the exercise is that Dad and my brother learned enough about it to convert their own cars using mainly bits from breakers rather than a kit. Occasional refinements are still in progress.

For anybody not wishing to undertake such a job, ATG in Wolverhampton are very experienced and can even supply cars ready-fitted with either the one-tank or two-tank kits. Even easier still is to run a car on a mixture of veg oil and diesel with no modification to the car at all (providing you have a suitable car). The ratio depends on time of year and opinion varies on the subject. As stated in the previous article, we successfully ran on a 50% blend of filtered WVO and diesel.

Anybody knowing of cooking oil being disposed of please contact rosie@wirren.org.uk or 0151 639 2121.