Many hands make fast work [2014-01-26]
In an earlier post, I mentioned that Reneal IEO was recently the grateful recipient of about 70 used laptops to support our 2014 projects in the Philippines and Tanzania. As a recipient, Reneal IEO commits to donors that this equipment will receive new life in schools; this means that the hardware must be prepared for use in the low-cost computer system. However we also make a commitment that we will ensure to the best of our ability that a donor’s information security is protected. This adds important steps to our processing of incoming donations, in particular secure disk wiping. Neal and I immediately got the disks wiped and memory checked. However there was still much work to be done to turn these obsolete computers into opportunity for students.
Last Thursday night Reneal IEO was thrilled to organize a laptop preparation event at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont, where Neal and I are members. The tasks were many: removing old corporate labels (and gooey residue), adding Reneal IEO labels, testing power adapters, resetting the BIOS, testing each laptop in the full-up system configuration, and checking each port of the network switches. Twelve hardy volunteers showed up and showed what a mighty force a dedicated team can be! The room was buzzing as laptops quickly made their way around the room to the various processing stations. All tasks were completed by the end of the evening, and there are now big stacks of laptops and power adapters ready for immediate use in schools overseas. We just can’t adequately express our gratitude for this gift of energy, enthusiasm, and hard work given by the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church family!