Royal Mail donates 3,000 computers to Computer Aid

The Royal Mail Group has donated 3,000 PCs to IT charity, and Computing’s charity partner, Computer Aid International.

The computers will be sent to schools in remote areas of Chile, enabling children to be connected to the web for the first time.

As a result of their professional refurbishment which extends the computers' lives by up to three to four years, each PC will provide children with up to 6,000 hours of access, and in total the machines will provide 18 million hours of access.

Every PC will give the opportunity to train up to 60 students to a vocational level of IT literacy, according to the charity.

Chilean students will learn how to search for information online, use word processing software and send emails, enabling them to find better jobs in the future.

The computers will be formatted by Computer Aid International through the charity’s PC decommissioning service, which sees complete data destruction using the Kroll Ontrack data-wiping software.

Tony Roberts, founder and chief executive of Computer Aid, added: “By donating its PCs to Computer Aid, the Royal Mail Group is providing children with the ability to interact with modern information technologies and offering them a genuine opportunity to break the circle of poverty within their communities."

"We urge other organisations to follow the Royal Mail Group’s lead. Donating equipment for reuse is free, easy and offers organisations guaranteed compliance with e-waste legislation.”