Close the Gap is an international not-for-profit organisation, recognised as a United Nations DPI NGO, which actively helps to bridge the digital divide. The objective is to assist in improving local knowledge and putting local talent to use by offering cost-efficient IT-solutions to projects in developing countries.
In the industrialised world, computers are replaced every three to four years, meaning that companies are increasingly looking for sustainable ways to replace their used devices. At the same time, millions of computers are needed in developing countries.
It is here that Close the Gap creates win-win situations. By supplying developing countries with high-quality refurbished IT equipment that is donated by companies in Western countries, Close the Gap creates practical, social and sustainable solutions that enable people to bring about a true change in their lives through the use of IT.
Together with all donors of Close the Gap, a total of hundreds of thousands of students receive access to an enhanced education and increased opportunities as a result. Offering an alternative to just recycling, Close the Gap provides a full service for companies and institutions wishing to reuse their computer equipment in a socially and environmentally responsible way. When donations are made, Close the Gap’s logistic partner collects the IT equipment. It is then checked by professionals, repaired if needed and reconfigured before it is sent off to a designated project.
Since its founding in 2003, Close the Gap has managed to reinstall tens of thousands of PCs donated by companies in Europe, offering local communities and individuals access to information. With the right tools, people in developing countries can significantly improve the quality of their lives. Access to communication technologies is predominantly vital in enabling them to reach this objective. Computers are used for a large variety of applications and have consequently become an essential part of the personal, educational and professional world. One tends to forget that one of the basic assets provided by computers is access to all kinds of information. Hence, the difference that access to information can make to a person’s life is immeasurable.
Close the Gap has now (by the end of the year 2010) collected an excess of 160,000 computer assets from donors in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. These are being used in learning centres in sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia, Latin America and also more recently in employability programmes in the Benelux. The organisation mainly supports projects in the socio-educational sector, such as schools, universities, hospitals and other programmes focusing on the improvement of educational and information facilities. Taking some assumptions into consideration, the fully implemented programmes in the various projects should have reached a minimum of one million unique users on a weekly basis. Users being mostly learners, but also young entrepreneurs, medical staff, parents and many civil society stakeholders. Those programmes will definitely also have allowed thousands of young adults’ access to computer literacy through school adults education programmes within our supportive partners’ educational programmes. However diverse the projects may be, they all have one common denominator: to focus on advancing both the individual and the community within a spirit of social education.