Sumona Dey stands next to a pile of laptops in the bottom floor of the China Trade Building, near Chinatown. The recruitment manager for World Computer Exchange, Dey is spending her Earth Day patiently waiting for donations of computers.
After an hour, no donations had come in, but Dey remains optimistic.
“We have some companies who have called saying they will be coming,” Dey says.
Dey works for World Computer Exchange, a global education and environment non-profit group. WCE is hosting “Expand Minds Not Landfills” today through Friday in celebration of Earth Day to create social change on two fronts. In regards to the environment, WCE works to keep used working computers and laptops out of landfills to help the environment -- and computer education is a second -- but equally important -- goal for the group.
Donated computers are shipped to schools in developing countries and volunteers teach students to use them.
“Volunteers find schools that need them [computers]. We seek volunteers who will do the training for the students, show them how the computers work and the Internet,” Dey says.
The last WCE shipment went from Chicago to Nigeria, along with seven volunteers. WCE has 25 chapters nationwide, and has sent more than 10,000 computers from Boston. The group is extending its stay in Chinatown after this week and will be accepting donations every Friday through the summer.
For more info: www.worldcomputerexchange.org
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