Second life for 1,000 government laptops

The Department for International Development (DFID) has donated more than 1,000 used laptops to a charity that will refurbish them before sending them on to the developing world.

Charity Computer Aid said it has already received 1,100 laptops from the department, which is upgrading its hardware. The laptops are wiped of data and sent to organisations such as a community centre in Nigeria that provides training to women and children to give them the skills they need to access higher education or start their own business.

A further shipment of 100 laptops will be donated to Computer Aid in the next week which will be used to equip other education and social inclusion projects.

DFID CIO Simon Jones said the goals of Computer Aid are closely aligned with those of his department. "We pass on our surplus equipment safe in the knowledge that it will have a second life helping to reduce poverty. But there is an added bonus in that these donations help us to meet our environmental obligations as we know their disposal will be carefully controlled," he said in a statement.

The charity said it has provided 140,000 PCs and laptops to support projects in countries such as Ecuador, Rwanda and Zambia. Asset tracking means the donated computers can be traced from the donor to the project they benefit.