[Photo from the Camara site]
Dom Helder Camara, the Brazilian archbishop is famous for saying “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
Camara is a volunteer organization in Dublin, Ireland, which empowers communities in Africa by using technology in education.
I’ve written about Camara before in terms of its history and its role in third-level education. As it’s come up in some recent conversations, I thought it was worth a reminder. We should note that Camara has now distributed nearly 14,000 computers in Africa.
Their activities include these from their website:
- We take in second hand computers that have been discarded by Irish Organisations and individuals, refurbish them and send them to schools and colleges in sub sahara Africa.
- We send out groups of volunteers to train African teachers in basic computer literacy and more specialised technology areas.
- We produce computer training materials and educational multimedia in areas such as HIV/AIDS and gender equality.
Chip's journey 