Computers 4 Africa

Computer refurbishing was started ‘by accident’ in 1995 as a result of a charity called Bootstrap in Hackney collecting waste paper for recycling from the City of London. A bank gave them some computers, along with a lot of waste paper, and suggested that the PCs could be usefully recycled too.

Bootstrap happened to have a volunteer who decided to attempt to repair these computers, if only to pass them on to local students who could not afford new ones. Andy Tidman was so successful at refurbishing IT equipment that Bootstrap successfully applied for a one year grant from the then Department for the Environment, expanded the project and called it "CyberCycle”.

In May 1997 the Labour party won the general election. In the manifesto was ‘New Deal’, a national initiative to give unemployed 18 – 25 year olds six months work experience, training, qualifications and jobs.

CyberCycle already had graduates volunteering in exchange for a reference on their CVs to demonstrate practical experience, without which they could not get jobs and with which they did. A government official heard about CyberCycle and when Guy Tompkins visited he said "I imagine that when Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson were sitting around the kitchen table and inventing the idea of the New Deal, that CyberCycle would have been what they had in mind.... rarely in my career in the Employment Service have I come across a project which is so perfectly fitted to the bill."

CyberCycle was therefore the ‘Pathfinder’ for New Deal and so successful that it was decided to franchise out the project to other community organisations across the UK. At 20 other charities grant funding was sourced, staff were  recruited and trained and workshop equipment and the first donations of PCs were provided. McSense CyberCycle and others are still operational today, 10 years later.

Tony Blair and David Blunkett invited representatives of CyberCycle to share the platform with them at the first national New Deal conference in Birmingham in 1999. The Prime Minister wrote “Thank you … I was impressed by the commitment to New Deal. It is good that these opportunities have come to fruition for so many young people.”

Gordon Brown visited CyberCycle in 2000 and many other government ministers and MPs also expressed interest and support. The Chancellor wrote “I was very impressed by the work you do – both giving young people the opportunity to gain skills as part of the New Deal and providing access to computers to low income families.”

CyberCycle delivered 6,250 PCs to the unemployed in the Midlands under the Chancellor’s ‘Computers Within Reach’ scheme during 2000 and 2001. All CyberCycles were then handed over to their ‘host’ community organisations with ‘no strings’ attached and set free. In 2004 Microsoft approached Charity Logistics to manage a new project aimed at providing refurbished PCs to the developing World. A project specific subsidiary to manage this activity was created and named “Digital Inclusion”, a name selected to convey the overall objective. However, it was decided that this name did not mean much to ordinary people and was later changed to “Computers 4 Africa”.

During 2005 Computers 4 Africa became independent and in November of the same year discovered that B&Q had selected Aseri Katanga (‘AK’ as he is known) from among their 37,000 staff to be their ‘Hero of the Year’ for 2006.

Aseri was born in 1958 in Ishozi village, near a town called Bukoba, on the shores of Lake Victoria in North Western Tanzania. His father was a local teacher and wanted the best for his young son. He finished his O levels and was sent alone to the UK to study A levels at Dacorum College in Hemel Hempstead, where he stayed in student accommodation. Continuing his studies in the UK, Aseri obtained a Higher National Diploma in Business Studies at Newlands Park College in Buckinghamshire and a degree in Economics at Kingston University. Aseri started his career with B&Q Plc in 1987 as a General Assistant, working his way up through the ranks to become a Business Accounts Manager at the Slough branch.

In his personal time, Aseri has helped to equip 26 schools in Tanzania with IT equipment and training. The B&Q Hero Award allowed Aseri to take one year off work with full pay to go to Tanzania and continue his project. It was during this year that Computers 4 Africa supported Aseri by using empty B&Q retail warehouses at Alperton, Mitcham and Ipswich to appeal to residents and local businesses to donate their unused IT equipment. Aseri is now Computer 4 Africa’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees and in ultimate control of the charity.

During 2007, Computers 4 Africa shipped 2,000 of its own PCs to Tanzania and 30,000 have been sent by Microsoft’s ‘Digital Pipeline’, for which Bill Gates recorded a supporting video. With 25 school children benefiting from each PC on average, IT access and education is now available to 800,000 pupils.