'A really good news story': Cork students repaired laptops to send to school in Tanzania

Irish Examiner

20-05-2025

For a class of Tanzanian pupils, it was the first time they had seen, let alone held or used, a computer in their entire lives.
However, this has all changed thanks to innovative students of Kinsale Community School, who undertook a project repairing 18 "end-of-life" laptops at their school.
Aaron Bowen, a teacher at the school, led the initiative which saw a separate group of students travel with the laptops to their partner school. Run by the Teretta Foundation, which supports communities through sustainability projects, the school is located in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Transition-year students Matthew Coholan, Moki Sheehy, Anthony Byrne, Billy Dennehy, Cathal Murray and Eva Clarke were among those who participated in the laptop repair module. Julius Thalkofer, Lena Peters, Maria Louisa Vogt, and Philip Murphy were also part of the team. The group linked in with students travelling to the Tanzanian school, who presented a teacher with the laptops.
Students from a school run by the Teretta Foundation in Tanzania with their teacher who received a number of recycled laptops from students of Kinsale Community School.
The Tanzanian children have now learned to use the computers, which will form an instrumental part of their learning. The project, titled Renew IT, has a scooped a number of accolades in recent months, including the senior group award at the AIB Future Sparks Awards and the 'Local to Global SDG Award' at the Young Environmentalist Awards. Most recently, it scooped a Garda Youth Award for the district of West Cork.
Principal of Kinsale Community School Fergal McCarthy praised his students for their innovation.
'The excitement of the arrival of these devices for the students was really fantastic,' he said. 'There are many threads to this story. There is the compassion from the students who repaired the laptops. There were also the students who went to Tanzania to help these young children.'
He explained how the project came to fruition.
'The first roll-out of devices served us really well but post covid we moved to one-to-one devices. Back then, we had a multiplicity of laptops around the school. Rather than them gathering dust, we understood the need for rebuilding the laptops.
Cathal Murray, Maria Louisa Vogt, Julius Thalkofer, Billy Dennehy, Moki Sheehy, Philip Murphy, Eva Clarke and Matthew Coholan from Kinsale Community School who undertook a project upcycling old laptops to gift to students in Tanzania.
"With this in mind, we put together a module in transition year around computer repairs. This project ticked a lot of boxes from an environmental perspective. What they learned also contributed positively to the development of a 21st-century skillset around the refurbishment of devices.
"There are few further education courses or degree courses with a focus on the repair of computers. For our students to have an insight into the inner workings of a computer and the capacity to repair, replenish and refurbish is fantastic for them. These are skills that are very much needed globally.'
Mr McCarthy said the experience had been extremely rewarding for his students.
I've seen videos of the children receiving these devices. It was their first time ever seeing a computer so they were so excited.
"Before that, their teacher has been teaching them about how to use a computer and how they worked with the aid of just a blackboard. It reiterated just how important these repair modules are. This is a really good news story.'
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