For the past eight years, a teacher native to Kenya has been dedicated to recuperating computers and other electronic items discarded for trash. After repairing them with a team of computer experts, he sends them to students in Kenya who have no access to these technologies. Jude Ndambuki developed a new bartering system: “if you plant 100 trees I will give you a computer.”

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Pressenza, Nueva York, 2009-08-20

Instead of receiving economic compensation, Jude Ndambuki asks for collaboration with “Project Help Kenya” and each recipient of a computer must plant 100 trees. With this methodology, the Kenyan professor has developed computer recycling, environmental conservation and educational development. This is how Jude gives computers to his compatriots for a more prosperous and hopeful future.

“Project Help Kenya” has given over 2,000 computers to distinct schools in Kenya and while it grows, we can achieve planting 150,000,000 trees. Ndambuki explains, “Many of the students attending the schools who receive these computers never have seen a computer. And at the same time, with this system we are ensuring development.” He adds, “It’s like giving the children a new life, and the trees are planted to bring new life, it’s all connected.”

Ndambuki’s upbringing was typical of Kenyan children. He was the second of eight children, and his mother was widowed at a very young age. She had to choose among which one of her children could go to school. Jude was one of the fortunate ones and in school he met exchange students from the United States who later helped him come to teach in New York.

Although thousands of miles from his native country, Ndambuki was always concerned with how he could help Kenyan children. One night, while walking home at the end of the school day, he passed a dumpster where a discarded computer caught his attention. Ndambuki took it home to check it out and discovered it worked perfectly.

That’s how Ndambuki got the idea for his initiative. After checking the statistics in his country, he discovered that over 90% of the schools don’t have access to computers. Another statistic that caught his attention was the deforestation. It’s from this that Ndambuki designed an exchange program whereby each school in Kenya could receive a median of five computers. Moreover, from time to time, Ndambuki and a group of computer experts travel to Africa to train teachers on new technological advancements.

by Patricia Le-Bert for El Buen Diario

(Translated by Hope Jolles)

Pressenza.org