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What fate awaits computers at the end of their valuable life?
Some end up in surplus shops selling secondhand
units; others in junkshops where workers smash and pick apart
electronic waste to scavenge for gold, copper and other precious
metals. Worse, some electronic harvesters pull out wires and plastic
parts, burn them at night and foul the air with toxic smoke.
When Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), one
of the country’s biggest banks, upgraded and replaced its systems,
old computers found their way into the hands and minds of those who
need them most. BPI Foundation, the bank’s philanthropic arm, and
BPI’s Information Systems Group run a program called e-Donate
where old but working computers (with Windows 98 OS software
programs) and unusable ones are donated to schools and recycled into
learning tools.
Used PCs recently went to a public elementary
school at the heart of Smokey Mountain where children of former
scavengers learn how to use computers. Computer donations were also
made to the foundation’s adopted community in Malibay, Pasay City,
where Rogationist priests teach residents basic computer skills as
part of a livelihood program. Secondhand computers also aid learning
at the Saint Peter College Seminary in Butuan City, which has about
175 student seminarians.
A hundred used computers also went to the Girl
Scouts of the Philippines, which runs a yearly social networking
program called “Jamboree on the Internet” where thousands of
participants exchange ideas and swap scouting experiences on
cyberspace. GSP National President Teresita Choa said BPI’s used
computers would also help train and link up its 95 councils from
Batanes to Basilan.
“The BPI Foundation program not only helps the
environment, it also empowers the youth and the girl scouting
movement,” said Choa, who is also the founding chairman of the
nonprofit Mother Earth Foundation.
The biggest recipient of the BPI Foundation
program is the Manpower Training Center of the Don Bosco Technical
Institute in Makati City. Nearly three truckloads of used and
unusable computers are now being used in teaching computer repair
and maintenance to vocational students taking up industrial
electronics. About a hundred of Don Bosco’s 1,300 vocational
students are part of the Center’s outreach program that gets young
people who cannot afford high school education off the streets, away
from drugs, and a fighting chance in life.
“BPI’s used computers greatly help us teach
hands-on computer maintenance instead of just theories. Unusable
ones are used as either training tools or ripped apart and sold to
junkshops,” said Bro. Elmer Rodriguez, Don Bosco technical
director who runs the Center.
Before the donations, four students would share
assembling, cabling and enabling one computer, said Wendell
Buenaobra, who had the experience as a vocational student and now
teaches the class. “After completing the course, the students
could now run their own computer repair shops, which is now in huge
demand,” he added.
Success stories from the Center’s outreach
program have already been drawing in droves young people from poor
families, even as far as Mindanao, to its arms. Among these is of
Richard Kaay, who finished only third grade in Zamboanga and was 17
years old when brought to the outreach program by Tuloy sa Don Bosco.
He now works in a machine shop in Saudi Arabia.
“Our goal here is the employability of our
students. BPI Foundation’s e-Donate helps us achieve that goal,”
Rodriguez said.
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