Seeking Laptop Donation for a Good Cause?

Johannes asks: "I'm working in a home for mentally heavily disabled children and I'm the computertechnician here. We are in need of a old notebook (486, min 120MB HDD, min. 4 MB Ram, B/W-Screen) to keep all the information of our children. After my request to IBM, Sony, Siemens I always received the same answer: 'Our budget doesn't allow us this year to help you'. Are these companies so poor that they can't not even find a notebook with our needed specifications? Anyway, until today we weren't successful, so I would like to ask all readers from Slashdot: does someone out in the big world have notebook, which he doesn't need anymore? Our home is situated in South Africa near Pretoria and we are fully dependant on donations." The standard answer IBM, Sony and the others provided seems like a dodge to me. Does anyone out there have a laptop to donate for a good cause?

Comments

Shipping.

[MindStalker]

Sadly the cost of shipping something to africa is more prohibative than the cost of any old laptop.

Side note.

[MindStalker]

Oh a side note, I wouldn't bother asking the computer corporations directly. A good place to start looking are groups trying to dispose of old laptops. I'd start with universities and state and local governments, and then maby move onto large corperations, you'd probably want to talk to the techs themselves if possible (sure they don't make such decisions, but generally they are the ones that know that they have a bunch of old laptops that need getting rid of)

Look at universities

[Anonymous Coward]

You could ask some assistants at a university. In our university, old computers are not send to the IT departement. Usually, they're stored in an office of one of the assistants until someone dumps them in the bin. 486 computers should be 'in stock' abundantly and academics are often willing to help organisations as yours (at least at our university).

eBay

[sydb]

Don't you have eBay in S.A.?

486 DX4 75 Mhz Laptop. 12 Mb RAM, 340 Mb Hard Disk Drive, 3.5" Floppy Drive Suit Student for cheap Wordprocessor Good Condition

36UKP on eBay just now. 9 hours to go. Surely someone reading /. in S.A. could find a similar local deal...

Corporations costs go through the roof for every little thing. To release an old laptop, someone has to first find one, make sure it's unused, if it is used order and commission a replacement, blah blah blah. Hence I'm not surprised by the response you got.

I will try.

[RockyMountain]

I can not promise anything, but I will ask my employer on Monday. (Here in the US it is thanksgiving holiday, so no business until Monday). We do occasionally have older laptops that we no longer need. Unfortunatly, if I do find one, it may well have Y2K issues.

I will be in Cape Town in December, so hand delivery is a possibility at least that far. I won't be in Pretoria, 'though.

On Monday, I'll email you directly, whatever the outcome.

Re:I will try.

[nlaporte]

I am not the original poster, but I would just like to tell you that you are a saint. If you look at all the other posts, they all say things like "on a side note..." You are the only person to have actually stepped up to the plate and taken action, and for that I commend you. You get (Score:5, Good Samaritan).

Re:I will try.

[tigersha]

Hi,

I could not mail you directly, because I cannot get your address from your user profile. I have family in Cape Town. If you are in Capetown in December, gimme a mail and I could arrange for someone to help you send whatever you could find to Pretoria. This would not be a problem at all.
My email is netgrok@yahoo.de

Unfortunately, I am in Europe at the moment so I cannot be of direct assitance.

L

Re:I will try.

[RockyMountain]

Thanks,

I'll email you directly, if I find a laptop before December 5.

I also have family in Cape Town, but nobody I know regularly travels to Pretoria. I live near Denver.

I've also sent my email address to Johannes. So, if someone in the Denver area finds a laptop, but needs me to help transport it, they can get a message to me via Johannes.

You forgot some details

[shrdlu]

You don't say what operating system you need, or what software you need to run on it. For example, do you require a specific version of Microsoft OS, are there issues with software you are using that will keep you from using a later version of that OS? Are you planning on installing a Linux of *BSD OS? Do you need a modem? Do you need network?

You also need to provide details about the charity. In the US I could look up the details to make sure that this wasn't a scam. Sorry to say that, but it's always a possibility, you know. Do you have some sort of evidence that you are a charity? Is there someone who can vouch for you?

Please reply publically. These are questions that a lot of people will be asking themselves, and it may help you to get what you need.

If all else fails, ask the media.

[Anonymous Coward]

The media pay money for good stories, and sometimes they'll donate goods if you let them do a story on you, or write a story for them. A friend of mine who had Cystic Fibrosis and was waiting for a transplant, was given a laptop so she could write a story about her experiences for the local media. Maybe in your case you'd be better off approching non-African media if you think they're unlikely to have the money. Magazines, Newspapers, TV etc.

Reality check!

[RockyMountain]

eBay? Let's get real, here!

I don't care HOW cheap you think such a laptop appears to you on eBay, you are obviously out of touch with what it is like to live and do charity work in Africa.

The South African Rand is almost worthless. What little value it has, is almost completely negated by the country's draconian foreign exchange control regulations. The rand is NOT a hard currency as most of us know it: It can only be exchanged with the permission of the government, and only in tiny amounts, subject to a mountain of regulations and paperwork.

When last I did the research, South Africa's per capita GDP was about $10k or so.

I take my hat off to anyone willing and able to do charity work at all in that environment.

I'm sure that sydb didn't mean his post to be offensive. It's just that we, in the industrialized western world, take so much for granted!

Who said it was a charity?

[RockyMountain]

Perhaps I'm cutting the poster more slack than most, but that's because I lived in Africa for 24 years, myself. Between extreme poverty, opressive legislation, poor health care, and illiteracy, he's got his work cut out for him.

It's not the Red Cross or some big-name charitable foundation that does most of the everyday good works in Africa. It's individuals and small grass-roots organizations you'll never hear of if you live in America or Europe.

He didn't claim to represent any kind of registered charity. He said what type of work he was doing, and asked for help. Plain and simple.

And what exactly is he asking for: A million bucks? The crown jewels? No. One old, decrepit computer that would otherwise go the the scrap heap. Well, if it's a scam, I'd take that risk.

Now, how about some positive posts, from people who are willing to make an effort to help?

I will ask my employer. They are a big, political, beaurocratic corporation, so I don't hold out much hope.

But at least I'll try. Will you?

Re:Who said it was a charity?

[shrdlu]

He implied that it was charitible work, which it certainly sounded like. That still doesn't answer the question of what operating system is needed, and what applications. It also doesn't answer the question of exactly how it would get there.

Nice that you're offering to take the risk, but your employer is going to ask harder questions than I did, and then they'll still say no. I have laptops, and would be willing to send one off if I could see that it was really going to what the poster asked for.

You may think I'm being cynical, but I know that the world abounds with scoundrels, and would like to understand how Johannes thinks that the cost of sending a laptop overseas would be any less than just giving him the money. I hope that the person who offered to hand carry it can come through, myself, because I don't hold out much hope for any other methods.
.

Re:Who said it was a charity?

[RockyMountain]

"Doing charitable work" is not the same as "being a charity". Johannes did not mislead or misrepresent in any way. He described the work he does, and he explained that they depend on contributions. I choose to make my personal donations wherever I see worthwhile work being done, regardless or charitable registration. But you are right, corporations won't see it that way.

I agree with you that these are the questions corporations will ask, and unfortunately, I agree that corporations will just say NO based upon the answers. I consider that sad, because I also understand Johanness' situation: If he's not a big-name internationally recognised charity, he's hosed when it comes to asking for donations from corporations. And it's the little guys who do most of the good works in the world, which is what makes this really sad.

I work for a large multinational corporation which has historically (but not so much recently) been VERY generous towards charities. But they are so mired in beaurocracy and politics that an "out of band" request for a single low end lap top will probably get nowhere. How sad that big, wasteful organizations like Red Cross and United Way get all the attention. (And look at what Red Cross tried to do recently, mis-using our Sept 11 contributions! As a donor, I was outraged.)

By the way, I am the one who offered to hand carry it to Cape Town, and pay shipping the rest of the way, myself. I live near Denver, in case anybody else manages to scrounge up a Laptop, but not the postage. I leave for Cape Town December 5. Johannes now has my email address, so donors can contact me through him.

He should have asked for a brand new one

[unitron]

"The standard answer IBM, Sony and the others provided seems like a dodge to me."

Even in South Africa, what are the chances of those companies still having an old 486 laptop lying around somewhere? They could probably give him a new one at less expense to themselves than paying staff to hunt up the parts to cobble together the antique he's asking for and to make sure that it works.

well...

[Beowulf_Boy]

I have a stack of 3 486 laptops with No hds or power supplies or batteries I will give, but I can't afford to pay shipping.
I also have a 386 20mhz Compaq Laptop with a 40meg ESDI drive I will give if you pay shipping.
my email is lstrunk@myrealbox.com

Copy of email to Johannes

[RockyMountain]

Hi Johnannes,

Sorry to inform you, but I have tried without success to obtain a laptop contribution from my employer.

Unfortunately, it seems that large corporations are not interested in helping small charities or individuals doing charitable works. If you are not a well-known big-name charity, they just ignore you.

I wish I had better news.

Derek.