Recycled Macs for Timor

Students in Timor-Leste are looking forward to going to school every day thanks to a gift they received from a group of Rockingham and Kwinana Rotarians.

Kwinana Rotary president Max Bird and fellow Rotarians travelled to Timor-Leste in May with a sea container filled with Apple Mac laptops to donate to classrooms in the capital, Dili.

The group had acquired 170 computers from the Department of Education which had expired warranty and were no longer being used in classrooms at Rockingham High School.

Mr Bird said Rotary was able to wipe the computers and take them overseas to be reused.

“We felt this was too good an opportunity to be missed,” he said. “The students in Dili were using old computers which were very slow.

“Some had missing keys or faulty keyboards and as they had been gifted by Malaysia they had foreign keyboards.”

Mr Bird said the teachers at the Timorese schools were thrilled to have machines that adequately supported their programs.

“Computer skills are rare in Timor-Leste so these students were very excited to learn with the new equipment,” he said.

Mr Bird said along with bringing new computer equipment to the Timorese people, Rotary was helping to install sustainable water supplies to villages.

He is hoping to return in September with more computers.