Secure IT recycling company AMI is collaborating with Camara Education to bring 100 e-learning centres to schoolgirls in Ethiopia.
The initiative will benefit girls in 100 schools in Ethiopia's Southern People's Province, where adult literacy for women is just 22%.
Irish charity Camara Education receives donations of retired computers and hardware from corporations including ESB, Dell and Symantec.
The refurbished equipment is then used to educate disadvantaged schoolchildren in Ireland and Africa.
As per GDPR rules, Camara outsources its Dublin-based refurbishment operations to AMI, which securely collects, processes and refurbishes the equipment to the most stringent international standards.
Philip McMichael, CEO at AMI, said that while these computers may no longer be fit for purpose for today's digitally transforming enterprises, they can quite literally be a lifeline for disadvantaged schoolchildren.
"They will provide them with the education and digital skills to unlock new opportunities for the future," Mr McMichael said.
He noted that any hardware that is donated to Camara Education is collected by security-vetted, trained and uniformed AMI collection crews and transported in unmarked, GPS-tracked vehicles.
"We then use our advanced equipment and data erasure software to ensure that all data-bearing equipment is cleansed to the most stringent global standards before refurbishment or resale," he added.
Cormac Lynch, founder of Camara Education, said by the time they reach the age of 18, many women in Ethiopia will have dropped out of school and are already married.
He said that literacy is extremely low, which can place enormous restrictions on a woman's ability to take control of her life.
"Access to computers can open up a world of opportunity and can enable a woman to go to university, learn new skills and leave in her legacy a brighter future for the next generation of girls," Mr Lynch added.
