“Second life” for used laptops in African school

“Knowledge is like a baobab. You cannot embrace it with your arms.” A proverb from Sudan shows the esteem in which education is held in Africa. Nevertheless, the school system in most countries of the continent suffers from chronic underdevelopment and underfunding.

The further away a place is from Africa’s urban centres, the more basic the types of schools one encounters there. Right down to the primary school classes that receive their lessons in the shade of trees in order to at least be protected from the burning sun – unfortunately, this is still current everyday life in many regions.

In view of the great disparity in wealth, support from Germany can therefore have a big impact even with small actions. Precisely because of these conditions, we supported the betterplace_afrika project by donating discarded laptops from our Munich branch to the Primary & Secondary School in Amura, Nigeria. The devices arrived safely at their destination and are already “in full action” with the pupils.

In circumstances where printed – and up-to-date – textbooks are either unaffordable or only available in small quantities, digital access to learning knowledge represents a huge step forward. The quality of teaching can be improved in the long term. School becomes more attractive, the number of parents who send their children there grows.

We are happy to have brought great joy to the school children with minimal effort. The pictures from Amura also show a prime example of a living “sharing society”: Shared joy on the laptop is threefold joy for the pupils. At the same time, this way we contribute to bringing modern technology closer to the young people at school. This increases their independence, because it improves their chances for higher qualifications and quality of life – both for themselves and for their families and their home countries.