Providing Quality Technology for Schools During Covid-19 – IT Schools Africa

With Covid-19 putting a halt to many aspects of life as we know it, the charity sector has been heavily impacted. As an IT specialist, we’re fortunate that it’s business as usual for us with the help of social distancing and remote working procedures. This means that many of our charity partnerships and involvements have been able to go ahead.

In this blog, we take a closer look at IT Schools Africa - a charity which ensures students in Africa have access to quality technology – and how we have been helping during the pandemic.

IT Schools Africa

IT Schools Africa is a not-for-profit organisation which ensures that students across Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have access to quality technology. So far, they have given over 5 million children access to a digital education. They also help adults in the UK to become more confident with IT and run workshops in prisons, which you can find out more about in our previous blog.

In order to provide this technology, IT Schools Africa finds out what equipment is needed, works with businesses and individuals to collect these items, then transports and integrates these solutions into schools.

Find out how you can help on the IT Schools Africa website.

How Techbuyer is helping

Our IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) facility is a secure business stream which takes unwanted, excess and redundant IT equipment and securely erases all client data. Our security vetted team then clean, refurbish and test all devices, and sell them as quality refurbished IT solutions.

We process a variety of IT hardware including server, storage and networking equipment, PCs, laptops and desktops, as well as peripheral devices like keyboards, monitors and mice – anything which is coming out of business circulation. After a member of our marketing team came across the charity in a newsletter, our ITAD team assessed the equipment available and reached out to IT Schools Africa asking if we could help.

Since we began working with IT Schools Africa in 2019, we have donated a variety of monitors, keyboards, mice and cables to help them on their mission. This provides the charity with reliable and secure IT performance, keeps IT devices in use, and supports communities in need of technology.

“Our clients rely on us for secure IT solutions,” says Alan Fisher, Team Leader at ITAD. “In simple terms this means that no data leaves the facility, all data is 100% erased, and we adhere to the strictest regulations set by governing bodies. It’s great to be able to provide these quality solutions for charities as well as businesses, to ensure these devices have a long and useful second lease of life.”

You can find out more about our charity donations, and why it’s important to our ITAD department, in this video.

Staying safe during Covid-19

Business operations have only gone ahead during the pandemic if they can be carried out safely. Alan spoke to us about the practicalities of charity donations during recent months.

“Covid-19 has had an effect on the way we do business, just as it has for every organisation,” Alan says. “We take more precautions like using hand sanitiser and wearing a mask, for our own protection but also with delivery drivers in mind, who visit a number of sites each day.”

“For our most recent IT Schools Africa shipment, we wiped all the equipment down, put everything into pallets and packaged it so that it was fit for shipping. This limited the handling and meant that it was a case of forklifting, rather than physically handing over devices.”

Looking at the bigger picture

Investing in charities and forming long-term not-for-profit partnerships is an important part of our business. As a refurbishment specialist, we support and actively advocate the circular economy in a number of ways, including fundraising, quality donations, and support of the UN Global Goals. We particularly look for ways to educate businesses and young people about sustainable technology, enable cost savings for the healthcare and education sector, and help our local community.

We especially love working with IT Schools Africa as they are supporting multiple causes all at once. By donating refurbished IT equipment, they prevent devices going to landfill. This in turn supports education and creates more opportunities for young people.

We would encourage any business to see how they could help IT Schools Africa. You can find out more information here.

September update

After this blog was written, Alan became our first Sustainability Champion! We wanted to say a big thank you for his hard work making these donations happen. Alan has also gone above and beyond by speaking to us about his interests in charity work, joining the Sustainability Committee, and filming content with us.

Techbuyer is a global specialist in new and refurbished IT equipment. We supply a variety of IT solutions for our clients including CTO servers, storage and networking equipment, secure data erasure, and IT rentals. Find out how we could help your organisation today.