Interns Help With Huge Computer Donation in Guatemala
by Benny LeeOctober 2nd, 2007
This past weekend a friend of AIDG-Guatemala asked us to lend him a hand unloading some computers. To my surprise, there were more than a few computers–hundreds of computers and monitors needed to be unloaded in the rural town of Cantel, about 20 minutes from Xela. Matthew Ruttman of Partners in Solidarity has been organizing computer donations from Oregon for the last 6 years. He partners with Next Step Recycling and brings computers to rural schools in need of computer labs. So this past Saturday, most of the interns and I, along with over 40 school kids, worked up a sweat hauling computers from a shipping container to a modest house for safekeeping. In the next few weeks the computers will be tested (they were all loaded with Windows 2000 and educational software before they left the US), before they are distributed to over 35 communities.
Matt organized a solid crew of local students (mostly young boys) to help move the monitors. Amazingly, all the monitors (that probably weighed as much as some of the kids) all made it to storage without a hitch. Pictured above is Steve Lee in full swing, and below two local boys helping heft the monitors.
