GRCC receives another batch of refurbished laptops for our digital inclusion work - and an appeal for more old computers for refurbishing by The ITSA Digital Trust
We were delighted last week to receive another batch of high quality refurbished laptops donated to GRCC by Cheltenham-based charity the The ITSA Digital Trust.
The laptops will be given to organisations and individuals in Gloucestershire as part of GRCC's DAISI Project, our digital inclusion work led by our Digital Inclusion Manager Daniel Gale. Since Autumn 2021, the DAISI Project has supplied more than £1.5 million worth of digital equipment, support, and pre-paid SIM cards to Gloucestershire people who are being left behind in the digital revolution. These are the 'digitally excluded' - people who can't access digital services such as online education, online application forms for jobs and benefits, and online health appointment booking systems, because they can't afford the digital equipment and internet connections that most of us now take for granted, or they have missed out on opportunities to learn how to use everyday digital tools.
Daniel Gale, left, unloads refurbished laptops delivered to GRCC's Community House by Jenny Evans of The ITSA Digital Trust.
GRCC's DAISI Project has been working closely with The ITSA Digital Trust for more than three years, during which time ITSA has donated to us dozens of high-quality refurbished laptops for use in our Gloucestershire digital inclusion projects. Some laptops also go to small local charities and community support organisations who need IT equipment in order to run their projects. The laptops in the photo above will all be heading to digital health and wellbeing projects in Stroud and the Cotswolds.
The ITSA Digital Trust is a Gloucestershire-based computer recycling charity which has given access to digital education to millions of people in Africa, and now divides its work equally between Africa and the UK.
The laptops which ITSA refurbishes mainly come from large organisations across the UK who are upgrading their IT equipment, and are happy to donate their old computers to a charity which can professionally refurbish them and put them to very good use.
ITSA urgently needs more donations of equipment, and they are looking for all the items in the following list:
- Computers (not Vista, XP or Windows 7) – no more than 6 years old
- Laptops (with chargers) – no more than 6 years old
- Flat Screen Monitors (with stands) – monitors can be older than 6 years old
- USB Keyboards, Mice, Hard drives, RAM, Power Leads and Cables
ITSA can't accept printers, phones, tablets, Ipads, scanners, servers, CRT monitors, or computers that have Windows XP or Windows 7.
Sometimes, companies are wary of donating their old computers to charity because of concerns about data security, but ITSA takes this very seriously and uses certified, state-of-the-art data security tools to wipe all donated computers and disk drives:
"Understandably, people and organisations who want to donate their unwanted computers to protect the environment and benefit less fortunate people also want to be sure about data security," said Jenny Evans, who is ITSA's Donations and Marketing Co-ordinator.
"Data security is our number one priority. If you are donating to ITSA, you can be completely confident that all the data on the PCs and laptops will be erased and can never be accessed again.
"We use professional hard-drive wiping software called ‘Global Erasure’, which is powered by YouWipe. The software erases 100% of all data from old hard drives and modern solid-state drives, in a way that the data cannot be recovered by any current technology.
"Each disk erasure is verified automatically. YouWipe has been certified by organisations such as NATO, Common Criteria, the UK National Cyber Security Centre and ADISA, the UK Asset Disposal and Information Security Alliance."
If you have any IT equipment that you could donate, please contact ITSA on 01242 228800 or email donations@itsadigitaltrust.org Or if you work in an organisation that might be able to donate old equipment, please send your IT department a link to this GRCC news article!
The ITSA Digital Trust is registered with the Environment Agency and is fully compliant with WEEE regulations. More information at www.itsadigitaltrust.org