Communications of the ACM
Donation of Technological Goods and its Impact on a Society
Many non-profit and individuals all around the world participate in donation programs for those without money or resources.
These donations varies from medicines to pillows including food, service time and of course technology.
The kind of technological donations varies from one site to another and each individual and non-profit organization defines what kind of technology they will donate.
Is in this way that we have donations of computers, medical equipment for the diagnosis of several kind of diseases, water treatment devices, solar cells, solar ovens, etc.
Most of these technologies in fact reaches those target populations for which the donation is intended saving and improving life of the individuals of those populations.
For example, some indigenous tribes of Colombia now have the possibility to communicate their daily events to their people via community radio broadcasting, also it serves as a public service channel to transmit news, messages and requests medical attention and so on.
Another example can be seen In Bolivia, were new solar ovens help local inhabitants to cook their meals for free without the need for wood or coal reducing in this way the impact on the environment for these resources.
One important side of this donations not commonly addressed by media is the donation of technology labs from highly recognized universities to their counterparts in the "third world" countries, these donations allows students from these universities to have access to state of the art technologies that because their cost will remain out of their sight.
From all kind of donations I believe the last one has to be considered between the most important ones and this is simply because they affects the educational background of those potential engineers, scientists, doctors and teachers, who at the very end will change the life conditions of surrounding society.
A trained engineer with state of art knowledge and improved skills thanks to a donation from a highly recognized university will be able to solve problems quicker and better thus he/she is able to solve common problems of their societies by their own without having to wait for external help or additional donations.
This situation will reduce the need of the country for donations because it starts or opens a way to a progressive development of the society with the consequent improvements on life quality and expectancy.
To really use all the power and benefits of technological donations, they must be addressed with a previous evaluation of needs and potential uses, do not forget that a solar oven can be used as a political weapon against poor people. In the case of universities, these labs has to be managed by trained personnel, open to all students willing to learn and has to be maintained by expert personnel properly trained by the donor of the equipment.
Finally I appreciate all your comments, they improve my writings and my knowledge, thanks.
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