Donations to ACA
As part of its mission, ACA collects books, used computer systems, and other serviceable materials for distribution in African schools and non-profit organizations. ACA is able to ship these items on U.S. military transports at no charge. Once in Africa, ACA has a distribution network established to distribute the equipment at no cost to the receiving institution. What ACA would like to accomplish is helping to end the waste that occurs whenever a book, obsolete (by our standards) computer, or anything that could help Africans in their development efforts is thrown away. Help ACA by making your used resources available to a region struggling to achieve sustainable economic growth and environmental stability.
Note:
All materials are distributed free of charge to receiving institutions.Before sending donations, please e-mail us a brief list of what
you would
like to donate so we will know what to expect.
Materials may be shipped to:
American Connections to Africa
Attn.: Arnold Gray
118 Bentwood Drive
Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08034
Immediately upon receipt of materials a receipt will be mailed to you via
postal service.
If you'd like to see profiles on who has helped make a difference through ACA, connect to Donors.
If you'd like to get a sense of the projects we undertake, connect to Village Projects.
Letters from Africa. (Coming soon)
Listed below are items that you can donate for distribution in Africa at no cost to the recipient.
Children's Books. In much of Africa, English is the official language. English is learned in primary school as part of the regular curriculum. Children's books provide excellent reading materials for these early readers. ACA distributes the books to rural primary schools. These donations sometimes comprise the only reading materials available at a school.
School Texts As reading skills improve, used school texts or basic novels become invaluable to the education process. ACA provides textbooks to primary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities.
Encyclopedia Encyclopedia from the 70's and 80's may no longer be useful in homes and such sets are periodically removed from school and library collections. While they may not be up on current events, most of the basic information remains valid and an unattainable asset in most African schools.
Technical Texts Technical texts, professional and scientific journal sets can be placed in newly emerging African colleges.
Plain Pentiums Currently being discarded for Pentium IIs and IIIs, these systems are ideal for college computer labs.
486 No longer up to the task for most American users, 486 computers are ideal for high school and college computer labs. ACA places these systems in African classrooms and laboratories.
386 Clearly obsolete for current American needs, these systems still perform valuable business and scientific operations that make them valuable in the classroom and laboratory.
286 The 286 system is reconfigured with dual disk drives (the old hard drives rarely survive for long) to provide instruments for learning basic keyboard technique and running DOS-based educational software for primary schools.
Old computer software or working hardware components are also valuable donations.
Remember--the alternative to these systems is no system at all. The importance of these gifts are difficult overstate.
Above: The OTHER place that retired computers go.
Photo Credit: Mario V. Marini, Sterling MA
Other Equipment
Machinery Most simple and serviceable machinery that can be carried by pallet and put to use in technical training facilities. Wood and metal working tools are all highly valuable.
Agricultural Equipment As with machinery, schools of agriculture and horticulture can put most of these implements to good use.
Have a question if the equipment can be used? Call or Email and we will let you know.
Thanks to all.