Diageo donates €70k worth of computers to education


28 Oct 2010

Camara Education has received the first instalment of 1,400 computers donated by Diageo Ireland, which will be taken to disadvantaged schools at home and abroad.

The donation of the units, which Diageo has said have “reached the end of their life from a business perspective,” will defer €750,000 of CO2 emissions for five years and will be reconditioned, giving them a collective value of €70,000.

Camara will open and clean the computers, check the specifications and functionality of the machines, make repairs and destroy data to US Department of Defence standards.

They will then reload the computers with education software on an open Linux-based system, letting schools access Wikipedia content offline, along with an educational tool called Camara Ubuntu.

The computers will be shipped to many African countries, such as Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

They will also provide laptops given to them by Diageo to disadvantaged Irish classrooms in the Dublin region, offering training and software. Camara has said it will expand this model to Cork and Galway.

Camara Education is a recipient of The Arthur Guinness Fund, which recognises the work of social entrepreneurs.

“The financial and professional support we received through the Arthur Guinness Fund has had an extremely positive impact on our organisation,” said John Fitzsimons, general manager of Camara Education.

“This will increase the capacity of our organisation, and within the first year will create an associated monetary social saving of approximately US$100,000.”