DIGITAL PIPELINE
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Mission Statement
Computers 4 Charity invites donations of surplus computers from organisations and people everywhere. With us you can donate equipment safely, minimise environmental impact and maximise community benefit. We re-use and give-away free-of-charge as much as possible, recycle as few as possible and waste none. Each device given a second life through refurbishment means a new one does not have to be manufactured; each refurbished laptop saving the planet from 30kg of CO2 emissions. We make the most of your donations to help those in need, maximising community impact to do some good with your unused laptops, tablets and PCs. Have them refurbished and given to young carers, homeless youth, hospices, charity volunteers, unemployed veterans and UK charities supporting schools in Africa. Unusable or surplus equipment is sold through our charity e-shop, components are re-used or recycled to fund the charity, nothing goes to waste. Your donations are 100% tracked, traced and the impact on people's lives reported back to you as: • 100% Datawiped • 100% Safety tested • 100% Environmentally compliant • 100% Software licence legal • 100% Tracked and traced
About This Cause
By donating your IT equipment or donating to us you can help: • Young carers • Homeless youth • Hospice patients • Charity volunteers • Unemployed veterans • Bereaved Forces children • UK charities supporting schools in Africa Young carers There are over 700,000 young carers in the UK. 1/3 of young carers reported having a mental health problem and 1/4 have difficulties at school due to their caring responsibilities. These are children under 18 who help look after someone in their family who is ill or disabled. They sometimes manage the whole family, including brothers and sisters. This can include managing family finances, benefits, shopping, cooking, cleaning, helping someone out of bed, bathing, getting dressed, washing and ironing clothes, collecting prescriptions, giving medicine and communicating with the authorities. Young carer families are often on benefits and live in poverty. They are less able to afford computers, which are critical for their schooling and important for their social lives. You can help them. A good computer can often transform a young carer’s life for the better. Donate yours today! Homeless youth 600,000 young people have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and many are now being evicted from their homes. We are placing computers into homeless shelters so they can immediately seek work and somewhere long-term to live. We are partnering with LandAid, Porchlight, Single Homeless Project, Evolve, Look Ahead and others. Hospices We are appealing for donations of iPads, tablets and laptops to give away to hospices, so that patients can see their families and friends - • Out-patients’ health can be assessed by doctors and nurses without having to visit, and can see their children and grandchildren • In-patients can face-time with and, ultimately, say their final ‘goodbyes’ to their families if, and when, they are diagnosed to be in their last hours. Patients normally only go into hospice when they need intensive care, especially 24/7 pain management. Patients can be of any age, and include children. They are usually only allowed one fully gowned, masked, gloved family member in at a time to hold their hand and talk to them, if any. There are wonderful caring staff; but it is not quite the same as your brothers and sisters, granny or grandad, mum or dad also being with you. Being able to see your family, talk face-to-face, is so much better than just a phone call. Charity volunteers At our outreach events, we display an exhibition showing what volunteering looks like and encourage people to give their time to the community and invite local charities to nominate a volunteer to receive a free laptop, as both a ‘Thank You’ and enable them to support their charity even more. Unemployed veterans We provide free laptops for unemployed veterans, who are nominated by a local charity at our event locations. This will help them job search and apply from home, instead of having to go into the Job Centre or local library; it is difficult to do these on a mobile phone. Bereaved Forces children There are over 1,000 bereaved military children in the UK without access to support. Any sudden death is a devastating event for children. When the death is that of a member of the Armed Forces there are additional factors to consider, such as the traumatic nature of a death in a combat situation, intense media interest, repatriation, an inquest and a service inquiry. If a person has been on active service or deployed elsewhere, it may be difficult for a child to comprehend that they won’t be coming home as usual. It’s natural to want to spare children from learning how the death happened, however, it will soon become public knowledge and it’s better that they hear the facts first. The family has often lost its bread-winner, a partner, a parent. Children can then go into shock and experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), disrupting their schooling and life chances. Having their own device can be a source of solace, a way of reaching out to family and friends for encouragement, care and support. Schools in Africa In some developing countries, the school is the tree with the widest branches and the teacher is the villager who can read and write the best, who may never have left the local region. With computers, school attendances often double and IT literate children get jobs earning several times what their parents do, supporting their extended families for a lifetime, helping their nation develop and lifting them out of poverty. Digital Pipeline’s “Computers 4 Charity” appeal deliver a World Class IT based education to an estimated 1.3 million children and, as Bill Gates said, “Digital Pipeline … can play a role in combating aids, malaria and other infectious diseases”. Now we are working through UK charities who support schools in Africa, to whom we donate laptops at our events. Donations have been given to: • Aid for Ummah • Alabaré Christian Care and Support • Annie’s Orphans • Armed Forces Cov. Hub Lancashire • Books 2 Africa • Borough Green Primary School • Bristol Home for Veterans • Broadstairs Town Shed • Canterbury and Herne Bay Volunteer Centre • Community Works • Daylight Foodbank • Wealden Talking News • Doncaster SSAFA • East Ham Hospice • Empower the Gambia • Imago Young Carers • Friends of Sussex Hospices • Kent County Council Social Services • MYTime Young Carers • Keep Britain Tidy • Paddock Wood Primary School • PATCH (Pembrokeshire Action to Combat Hardship) • Paul Sartori Hospice • Pembrokeshire People First • Phoenix Women’s Aid • Pilgrims Hospice • Prospect Hospice • School Gambia • Shalom Hospice • SSAFA • SSAFA Wiltshire • St. Catherine’s Hospice • Taylor Made Dreams • The Brick • The Foxton Centre • Voluntary Action Doncaster • Volunteer Centre • Weston Hospice Care • Wigan Armed Forces HQ • Young Carers x 3 • Wisdom Hospice History Digital Pipeline’s “Computers 4 Charity” appeal invites donations of redundant computers, saving them from being scrapped or dumped, 100% securely datawipes and 100% fulfils all environmental responsibilities with every item tracked and traced throughout. As many as practicable are supplied on to schools in developing countries via other UK charities, or more recently to young carers, children in need, unemployed veterans, hospices and nominated volunteers in the UK. Unusable or surplus equipment is sold or recycled to help fund the charity, nothing goes to waste. Digital Pipeline started out as an internal project within Microsoft in February 2004, was incorporated on 21st December 2006 and registered as a charity on 3rd April 2007. Microsoft was the Founding Member; see the personal video from Bill Gates. Bill Gates said: "Digital Pipeline offers an innovative approach to the effective reuse of technology" In January 2011 Computers 4 Africa merged into Digital Pipeline and in January 2020 Digital Pipeline restructured to join forces with another charity, formerly called Contribute with a view to an eventual merger and changed its ‘Working Name’ to “Computers 4 Charity”. Future For the future the charity plans to launch the Computers 4 Charity Network: Our Aim: Local computer re-use Our aim is to establish a national network of local computer refurbishers who will all work under our umbrella and coordination, to universal quality standards. This will minimise our environmental impact, and maximise our community impact. We want to minimise our road miles carbon footprint, re-use computers locally and support regional refurbishers, as well as their local communities. CyberCycle In 1996 we were running CyberCycle in London, datawiping and refurbishing IT equipment for charities and non-profits. We provided our volunteer IT graduates with work references, which enabled them to get jobs as a result – this was observed and put into the Labour Party manifesto by Rt Hon Peter Mandelson in January 1997. We were then asked to pioneer the government’s ‘New Deal’ programme with Rt Hon Tony Blair, setting up and establishing 20 CyberCycle computer refurbishing workshops across the UK. These were hosted by other charities and community organisations, providing work experience, training and IT engineering qualifications for the young unemployed. This has left us in a unique position; we know a lot of people who also refurbish IT equipment all over the country and there is goodwill between us. Our relationships are key. Computer refurbishers usually work in silos, alone, and perceive other refurbishers as competitors. We are uniquely different, having people we know everywhere who are willing to work with us as our sub-contract partners. National Network: Building Upon Success Bill Gates said that our charity is “forging partnerships to ensure that affordable high quality computers, donated by businesses, reach underserved communities”. We would like to fulfil his dream. We plan on working with one refurbisher in each region and nation: Scotland, North East, North West, Midlands, Wales, South West, East of England and South East; a total of eight. At a future stage, we will explore the possibilities in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic; possibly up to ten across the British Isles.