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I'm on the mailing list of this well known group and while I have yet to be able to make a meeting of the local chapter I have "almost gone" a few times. Here's a link to their eCorps page that shows upcoming trips. Not sure if it would fit into your timetable but it looks to be right up the alley of the OP. Also they take equipment donations through their local chapters so if you are looking to do a workstation refresh might want to reach out to them: http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/ecorps

I am a currently serving development worker in Kenya (serving in IT work actually) and Kenya is a popular destination for voluntourism vacations due to its beautiful beaches (you do get a break after your hard work) and relatively stability.

However, from an actual development standpoint, this voluntourism is effectively useless. It serves two main purposes: 1) is to create a feel good factor for those people who do decided to work above and 2) is to provide basic labor services for free to organizations. One cannot deny the feel good factor, and it is a truly nice feeling to see smiling childrens' faces and the fruits of your labor, but in actuality there are some problems with this.

First off, the organizations that usually receive voluntourism aid are the ones that usually need it the least. In order to ensure the safety of their tourists, the arranging companies end up picking the safest and most productive development sites, which are also the ones that need it the least. These are the sites that have become so successful that their next stage of success is to finally cut the tether with handouts and free work and evolve into a self-sustaining entity (what the development industry calls sustainable development). By utilizing voluntourists to do work that can be done by locals, the voluntourists are actually promoting non-sustainable work practices, as well as taking potentially paying positions away from other members of the community who could benefit.

In your particular case also, there is very little voluntourism that is oriented towards your professions. My suggestion here is to look for non profits based in your home country, which oftentimes have trips and plans set up where skills can be put to use. for example, I partner with the world computer exchange (http://worldcomputerexchange.org) and just this past july they sent volunteers to Kenya to do IT-related work through their own series of partnerships and contacts. The volunteers were put to hard work and had to pay their own way, but were actually helping implement a plan that need the expert advice and extra helping hands. These are not continuously operating trips, but rather targeted, goal-specific trips.

Ultimately if your goal therefore is to help, donate money. Pick wisely. And don't let the fact that you cannot completely control where money is going affect where you donate. There are some bad examples, for example what used to be the Christian Childrens' Fund had terrible mismanagement, but take for example the Interational Red Cross. If you donate to them, will your specific $5 go to buy a specific pillbox that gets distributed to a specific person? No. But that's ok. Non-profits and NGO's don't operate with profit models guiding their decisions, but that doesn't mean they don't have overheads and administrative costs that NEED to be fulfilled. Many of these are run by full-time staff, and they need to eat to. At least in Kenya, I can assure you that these local NGO workers are not living in the lap of luxury. Though I can't make the same claim about those working for orgs like the UN or USAID, who get paid Western salaries while living in Kenya.

www.freegeek.org
www.worldcomputerexchange.org

If either has a chapter near you, give your stuff to them. Both are great at putting old computer equipment to good use.

Uh... send them to OLPC? They have their own laptop hardware that they're promoting, now with Windows installed -- they're not refurbing old laptops. For that, you might look at http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/donate_equipment

(But they only accept P3 systems)

What about shipping your old stuff overseas?

http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/offices/bosto n_contacts.htm

There are plenty of takers for your old equipment. Why fill up a dump?

--
BMO

You can keep your 486, but if you have PII's or better, you can bring them to these folks:
http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/

Yeah, how could they think that?

Gee, maybe because you got 2 working computers from it? Isn't that 2 more than you had before?

So what it sounds like you are saying is that they WEREN'T doing you any favor. Let us all know what charity it is that you work for, so we can avoid burdening you in the future. I know I won't burden you with my old computer equipment, or my money, or my used books, or my time.

Hell, if you didn't want them, why did you accept them? It's not like they gave you a burden, all you had to do was say "No thank you" and I'm sure they wouldn't have thrust them upon you. Or, perhaps you could have said "Hey, we really need books on science - how about you sell these computers for parts on ebay and send us the money so we can buy some books?"

Guess the idiots at "World Computer Exchange" need to hear from you so they stop being so stupid and sending out used computer equipment. Why don't you tell them?

At least you could use the stupid modems to hammer things.

Netaid.org

Pearls of Africa is run entirely by online volunteers who research and develop programs, solicit donations, and run a children's resource library in Uganda geared toward disabilities. Moy traveled to Uganda in November 2001 with the United Nations to open the library.

World Computer Exchange , based in Massachusetts, relies on virtual volunteers in its mission to bring computers to schools in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since it was founded in October 1999, the organization has helped 676 schools and almost 256,000 students go online, says Tim Anderson, president and founder.

VolunteerMatch , which links volunteers with more than 23,000 organizations offering about 40,000 volunteer opportunities, is helping that cause, says Jason Willett, director of communications. Since 1998, nearly one million people signed up for an opportunity through VolunteerMatch.

As well, there are online mentors like NetMentors , which offers online career development for teenagers. It serves as a virtual career counselor with expertise on 70 different careers. With about 800 mentors, the group has counseled 1000 students entirely through its Web site.

Instead of recycling your old pc hardware, donate it instead through the World Computer Exchange. Hardware donations are a real boon to the people (especially children) of third world countries. Projects like the Goa Schools Computers Projects and the Digital Equalizer Initiative help provide the less fortunate w/such hardware and train them to use it, too. The DEI also accepts donations.

Instead of recycling your old pc hardware, donate it instead through the World Computer Exchange. Hardware donations are a real boon to the people (especially children) of third world countries. Projects like the Goa Schools Computers Projects and the Digital Equalizer Initiative help provide the less fortunate w/such hardware and train them to use it, too. The DEI also accepts donations.