This is great! Share more! 3 points was all I had. I am down to zero now.

I'll match Linda's three. I like using each resource the community has to accomplish as many different community purposes as possible.

Thanks Linda and David -- I'm extremely grateful for the encouragement.

Actually, in the just-under 2 year life of this project, with help from numerous volunteers Terry and I have collected, refurbished, and given away 100 or so computers, mainly to well-deserving folks at the one food bank.

Its amazing the stuff that people are discarding, and how useful it can be to someone else.

This has been an astonishing experience for me, not the least because of the many cultures and personal stories we've learned about.

Many of the families who use the food bank are from other places. Flemingdon Park, basically a store-front Anglican ministry and social-service agency in an under-served and needy community, cares for people from Somalia, Colombia, Sri Lanka -- the origins of folks are varied. Several single-mother Afghani families told me harrowing stories of what had happened to their husbands and fathers, and how they managed to flee to Canada to claim refugee status.

(These stories have special significance in light of high-level diplomatic evidence this week that our Canadian armed forces may have been complicit in the torture and abuse of prisoners in our custody.

Wow. This is great Jon, congrats on such fantastic outcomes and making this happen. (I dropped 3 points here as well) I think doing stuff like this is much like doing a startup...once you do it, you never go back.

I know in another thread you mentioned ongoing and sustainable support, and I just wanted to share with y some notes I tok from Free Geek here in Portland. This was from over two years ago, so some things may have changed, but hopefully may help in some way.

Free Geek: $30,000 in monthly revenue. 1/3 comes from sales of their referbished stuff at their store, 1/3 comes from recycle fees (they charge for drop offs and picking up stuff from companies), and 1/3 from donations. Anywho, maybe that will help get your juices churning in some way.

Again, fantastic work.

Fabulous news Jon! It was wonderful to finally meet you in person when I was visiting in Toronto in October. Congratulations!!!

Good to hear of your exploits, John - what are the main activities at this telecentre, as it seems perhaps to have an interesting and diverse target customer base?

Free Geek - interesting stats, but perhaps more interesting would be how do they spend that $30,000 in monthly revenue to maximise social impact.

And interesting too, how could such a business come about here in Uganda, where it is most needed? Perhaps it could not, but why, where the market is so desperate for cheap recycled computers can one barely find any and new laptops are double the price they are in the UK.

Lastly, do you have any tips for us how you approach the acquisition of donated computer equipment?

I was just thinking. I know that there are organizations in the north that refurbish donated computers and transport them to the south for use there. Problem being that the transport is expensive. I was wondering if there is also a problem due to duties. If there is, would it help if you were shipping the computers that needed to be refurbished and then fixed them there. They would have to incur a lower duty.

Hi Ben -- thanks for your thoughts. Great question on getting donated computers to places like Uganda. I know it has been mentioned before on ned, and as a result I've done some amateurish poking-around, with nothing really solid to report.

As Linda rightly mentions, transportation is the main barrier. For my part, I've tended to keep the few laptops that come in to our recycling project, and try to put them aside for special projects like overseas needs, as they are easier to send -- a complete computer can go in someone luggage.

Freegeek was one of our inspirations, but I can't claim to be an expert on it -- my co-coordinator visited them awhile back, and has some video footage which we hope to view at some stage. I will try to remember to ask him about the numbers, too.

Yes, congrats!

I second Jon's response about amateurish poking-around. I know of quiet a number of organizations trying to tackle the problem and none really coming up with much. Of course the luggage suggestion is great, but that's really getting burdensome now with strict weight requirements. Networking is hard, but most people coming and going do understand this currier role. Zeb Anderson networked with books for Africa which does container shipments of books to include a pallet of used computers he got donated--if I remember right the cost was still about $900. There are several organizations that do work for the service year many students take in places like Uganda. It might be possible to solicit them to see if students would be willing to pack a laptop when they go. But the competition for space is intense. Most people are already carrying in things needed for organizations on the ground as it is.

wonderful initiative

Thanks Dennis, for your supportive words!