Born from tech waste, driven by inclusion.
*Digital Exclusion: a modern scourge that should never have happened
Reusing IT traces its beginnings to a small village in the Scottish Highlands, where in the late 1990s high school pupils were working on an aid project, Computers for Africa.
At the time, Reusing IT’s founder, Ross Cockburn, was an IT manager in Edinburgh for a large company. The director wanted a batch of old computers out of the way. Not wanting to see perfectly good computers go to landfill, Ross phoned around to find a good cause which could use them.
It proved difficult to find anyone in the UK who wanted six-year-old computers, but persistence paid off and Ross eventually heard about Plockton High School (Plockton village population <500 people) who could use them with Computers for Africa. He trekked up to the Highlands and arranged the donation.
That became Ross’ first African trip and would possibly have been the last; until a friend in London heard about it, and called him to say his company had 500 computers which were perfectly good but out of warranty and destined for landfill – could he use them?
The second delivery of computers went to a charity in Kenya via the Computers for Africa connection. It was run by Sister Mary Colleen, a catholic teacher who had taken up the challenge of establishing a school to provide free education to kids in the slums of Nairobi. The operation inevitably expanded, and seeing the huge difference the computers were making, Reusing IT became thoroughly invested in shipping desktop computers into schools and setting them up. Sourcing end-of-life computers from organisations across the UK and refurbishing them, between 2000 and 2007 we took an annual shipment to Africa with our own volunteers, setting up computer facilities and training staff in schools in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.
We became a registered charity in 2007 and took on a premises and storage facilities near Edinburgh. A partnership with Computer Aid International saw us shipping containers full of computers to Africa.
Ross gave up his corporate life and started working on Reusing IT full time, developing partnerships with organisations who could regularly supply him with large numbers of devices to be recycled and feed the never-ending demand.
Whilst deeply focussed on their work in Africa, Ross received a call from the head teacher of a primary school locally in West Lothian, asking if he would consider helping local schools too?
An eye-opening conversation followed about the need for devices for Scottish school pupils. Frustrated to learn that Scotland’s national digital learning platform was being rolled out with no plan to ensure all pupils had equal access to it, Ross rolled up his sleeves and got to work on the problem locally, in partnership with West Lothian Council. The council started promoting Reusing IT via the Voluntary Sector Gateway as a digital inclusion charity.
Requests came in – and still do – from a host of charities working on tackling digital exclusion in Scotland. The problem was to some extent bought into the spotlight with Covid lockdowns and the requirement to study and work from home. Many families had to manage competing needs for work and study with one shared computer, or even no computer at all. Reusing IT worked frantically to try and ensure every one had access to their own tablet or laptop, but it’s very much an ongoing challenge.
The war in Ukraine triggered a crisis that we could not ignore.
We knew we could help, and shortly after the outbreak of the war in 2022, we took an initial shipment of 250 laptops, in partnership with Yorkshire Aid and a Ukrainian charity. Our work in Ukraine has developed into a major focus, and we are supplying a high volume of devices to the Ministry of Education and Science for children being schooled at home or in bomb shelters. The devices are essential for continuing their education as best as possible, despite the war. Our work is keeping these children at home, educated, and alive.
We are currently shipping 5000 devices per year to Ukraine and are the fourth largest donor of devices for education after Google, Unicef and HP. In 2023 and 2024, Reusing IT donated more devices to Ukraine than the whole of the EU put together.
To be continued. Because our story will not be over until no-one is excluded from life opportunities through lack of a device.
