Happy Holidays from TecsChange!

At TecsChange we never know what our next opportunity will be.  This year took another unexpected turn.  Previously we have gotten a few scattered laptop donations.  They were never the same so we couldn’t use any of our mass production tricks to clean of and restore them.

Out of the blue we got the best donation we have ever received, a batch of over 25 very functional laptops.  We had to learn a few more tricks to clone them efficiently but they have recently been moving out to organizations in Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and very soon a bunch of other places. 

We focus our laptop donations to places where they are critical.   We get many requests for laptops because they are simpler to deal with but we always have to ask the question is it absolutely necessary for that project or will a desktop do as well.   

There are many places where it is not safe to leave information on a desktop computer in an office. Honduras, since the recent coup, where there are death squads in operation is a perfect example of this.  Columbia is another place TecsChange has targeted for laptop donations over the years for the same reasons.

Anticipating that funding will be tighter this year because of the economic conditions, we went through a grueling two month long move over the summer where we successfully pared down our operation to the essentials.   We now have a smaller less expensive place to work out of that meets our current needs.  We make very efficient use of rolling carts and a little bit of donated off site storage to get the most out of our space.  

Your donation will insure that we have a functional workshop for our volunteers to put in the time and effort to carry on this vital work.  

You can donate at our website online at www.tecschange.org or mail a check to our new address.

TecsChange, 33 Harrison Ave, 5^th Floor, Boston, MA 02111

Thanks again

Charlie Welch for TecsChange