GREENING KENYA - TECHNOLOGY FOR TREES

RECYCLING IN THE UNITED STATES WHILE RE-FORESTING KENYA

Along with the constant improvements to and ever-growing demand for new computer technology comes the issue of how to dispose of out-dated and no-longer-needed equipment. Help Kenya Project is working here in the US to help alleviate this problem by soliciting for donations of used computer equipment, which will be refurbished and sent to Kenya for use by schoolchildren. In this way, individuals, Communities, Schools, Businesses and Corporations alike can choose to recycle their equipment by donating it to HKP as a more productive alternative to simply disposing of the computer equipment as garbage, which either terminates in a landfill in the US, or even worse, can end up being shipped abroad where the equipment is often burned, further polluting the world’s atmosphere with toxic gases (see New York Times Magazine article entitled "Dumping Across the Digital Divide", August, 2010).  

As an additional bonus to HKP’s efforts, in exchange for each computer a Kenyan school receives, 100 sapling trees, which have been germinated from seeds by Kenyan schoolchildren, are planted as a way to combat dust, provide shade, and re-forest Kenyan lands from which trees were cut down for use by the community for shelter, cooking, and warmth.  In this way, HKP is not the only entity bringing something to the project; Kenyan children are giving back not only as a way of showing appreciation for HKP’s efforts, but they are also participating in “greening” their own environment.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

Help Kenya Project is comprised of a group of unpaid volunteers who work alongside its founder, Jude Ndambuki, in every aspect of the organization. 

We operate by organizing Fundraising and Friendraising Events, by word-of-mouth and by placing small ads in local newspapers in order to solicit for no-longer-wanted computer equipment.  Our volunteers collect the equipment in private vehicles and transport it to Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry New York, a residential school for at-risk teens.  The teens refurbish the computers by first expunging the hard drive of all information and software, and then by re-installing new computer programs which will can then be used by the Kenyan children.  

Once we have refurbished 300 computers, we box up and allot all the computers for different schools and arrange for a shipping container to transport the boxes to the port city of Mombasa, Kenya, which takes roughly one month to arrive.  At the present time, we are shipping twice yearly, once in April and once in June. The shipment is then transported by truck to Nairobi where the allotments are picked up by the local schools.

If a recipient school is fortunate enough to have a teacher who is versed in computer technology, the teacher begins working with the student body right away.  We are currently working to expand the number of teachers who have computer knowledge. Very often by the time our July volunteers arrive in Kenya, trees are either ready to be planted or have already been planted and are beginning to take root. 

If a recipient school does not have a computer literate teacher, Help Kenya Project’s summer volunteers travel to Kenya to teach both teachers and students about the computers and work together with the students to plant the trees.  This collaboration between the teachers, students and teaching volunteers not only enables the volunteer to become a teacher and the student to begin to learn computer skills, but very often personal relationships which are unbounded by socio-economic levels, race, culture, age or religion begin to develop.  In this way, strong bonds begin to be forged between Americans and Kenyans which helps to create global understanding between different peoples.