In need computer donations for the handicapped

StueyB_2

Hi all,

As some of you may know my gf works with mentally and physically disabled teens and adults in a council run centre. Unfortunatly the money that had been fund raised and set aside for computers had to be used to replace the poly tunnel that some thieves stole a while back , so that the more able bodied ones can carry on enjoying growing produce to sell to the local community.

Now the real kicker is that they have an basic IT room all setup (read tables and chairs) but no computers.

I have volunteered my time free of charge to help them set up a system as best I can with donated parts (I have got a few P2 400Mhz 64MB/cd rom machines and a couple of printers so far) but if anyone is willing to donate any better hardware or software it would be appreciated (kids educational games especially).

It really would help as these kids dont really get that much and it would be going to a worthy cause and making them smile a bit more. And if anyone has old early laptops they want rid of, that would be ideal for the immobile clients to play on (the educational games they play are low spec)

Im due to go in on next wednesday to start fixing it all up so any donations gratefully recieved.

I know you guys will try and help.
Cheers

Stuey

newfoundglory

You should try approaching local companies in your area to see if they have any old equipment - I would think you would get quite a big response.

I think companies are prevented from donating their old computers to schools for health and safety (and maybe legal) reasons. You should ask, because the same may not apply here.

A lot of universities sometimes have old equipment, so if there is a uni in your area you should ask the IT systems department there too - I know my uni ends up giving away old equipment parts to students...

itgirlinuk

I don't have any computer of my own, but you can post a message on this site asking for spares / old ones.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclelondon/messages

This is the london freecycle yahoo group and I have seen loads of messages offering their old computer. The only problem would be location. Would you be able to pick them up in and around London?

Hope this helps.

StueyB_2

Ill give it a shot. I really want to do the best I can for these peeps.

T4i

Its a shame large companies/organisations don't look into this kind of recycling more.

The company I work for is constantly updating p.c's to 3gig/256MB machines, we only use BaaN (online database) and office. There is no way on this earth why we need 3gig machines......instead of fixing machines they just replace with newer ones.....crazy!

I was shown where all the old p.c's, printers, monitors go when broken/old. Its a absolute joke! Hundreds of p.c's just sitting there cas there not at todays specs....or because they disable the defrag by admin policy and the p.c runs that slow they upgrade it.

As the guy said earlier, you want to ring local companies up and make them feel damn guilty about wasting good technology that could help develop skills within the disabled community.

londonman81

StueyB wrote:

Hi all,

As some of you may know my gf works with mentally and physically disabled teens and adults in a council run centre. Unfortunatly the money that had been fund raised and set aside for computers had to be used to replace the poly tunnel that some thieves stole a while back , so that the more able bodied ones can carry on enjoying growing produce to sell to the local community.

Now the real kicker is that they have an basic IT room all setup (read tables and chairs) but no computers.

I have volunteered my time free of charge to help them set up a system as best I can with donated parts (I have got a few P2 400Mhz 64MB/cd rom machines and a couple of printers so far) but if anyone is willing to donate any better hardware or software it would be appreciated (kids educational games especially).

It really would help as these kids dont really get that much and it would be going to a worthy cause and making them smile a bit more. And if anyone has old early laptops they want rid of, that would be ideal for the immobile clients to play on (the educational games they play are low spec)

Im due to go in on next wednesday to start fixing it all up so any donations gratefully recieved.

I know you guys will try and help.
Cheers

Stuey

If you look down the Techie Forum you may have seen that I have a 17inch CRT monitor which no one seems to want even though it works perfectly fine.
Infact I just remembered that I have a 15inch CRT too in the shed from yonks ago - again it work fine even though it looks old.

I know it's not a computer but it may help plug a few gaps as some other people may donate computers with no monitors.

I don't know where you are based but I'm in the London area.

Let me know if this is of any use to you.

Good luck!