This is Robert and Linda Spitaleri's son Joshua. I wanted to come on and just add a quick post about something we did a year ago. The company I work for goes through laptop/desktop refreshes and we were able to grab a few of the older laptops, add some more memory, install a fresh operating system, and send them back to Tanzania with Robert.
It's such a shame that so much of this equipment in the US gets trashed or e-cycled as my company would have done. It is difficult and costly to send desktops, and laptops are only now getting powerful enough and resilient enough to really power the applications that people in Tanzania will need.
It is my opinion that technology can join with local cultures to help move entire groups of people out of stagnant economic classes. Sharing information and providing easier access to knowledge really is a strong force that shortcuts a lot of what economic improvement programs have been trying to do since, forever. Furthermore it helps people grow on their own, stand on their own, which I know has always been a tenant of my parents work.
There is of course the realization that this is just a drop in the bucket of the work that needs to be done but it all cascades one into another.
Here are a few photos of the recipients of the laptops.
It's such a shame that so much of this equipment in the US gets trashed or e-cycled as my company would have done. It is difficult and costly to send desktops, and laptops are only now getting powerful enough and resilient enough to really power the applications that people in Tanzania will need.
It is my opinion that technology can join with local cultures to help move entire groups of people out of stagnant economic classes. Sharing information and providing easier access to knowledge really is a strong force that shortcuts a lot of what economic improvement programs have been trying to do since, forever. Furthermore it helps people grow on their own, stand on their own, which I know has always been a tenant of my parents work.
There is of course the realization that this is just a drop in the bucket of the work that needs to be done but it all cascades one into another.
Here are a few photos of the recipients of the laptops.
This is the Nuru family
Here is a picture of Paulo Axwesso receiving the laptop