Charity drive

Under a class project, Dubai Men's College students will repair old computers donated by Gulf News and send them to countries in need. Reema Saffarini reports.

UAE national students hauling computer monitors and CPUs into an orange truck, sleeves rolled up and white dishdashas no longer the right shade of white is not really a usual sight when you enter the Gulf News building in Dubai.

Last week 32 students from Dubai Men's College visited Gulf News to collect more than 250 old computers which the newspaper was giving away. The students intended to reassemble them as part of a class project and send them on to countries in need such as Lebanon, in a gesture of charity during Ramadan.

"Students at the college are required to take a course in computer configuration and hardware. In this course they are required to build up computers," said Anthony Pollitt, information technology faculty at DMC.

Course requirement

"Usually students build up the computer, finish the project and then move on. However, the idea of working for a cause is different."

More than 60 students taking their diplomas and higher diplomas in information technology will be reassembling the old computers and these will later be sent through the Emirates Airline Charity Foundation to countries in need.

"This project will get the students to do something beneficial for others. When the idea was suggested, we received excellent response from the students who were eager to start," said Pollitt.

Student Mohammad Al Merri considers the project a challenge. "We decided to take it up. We are mostly looking for work experience. We never worked on a project like this before," he said.

Give and take

Diploma student Adel Mustafa saw the assignment as an opportunity to "kill two birds at once. We are doing something different. We work with our hands and learn new things and at the same time help others who are in need".

Pollitt said that he had been approaching companies for some time to gather computers for this course and charity project.

"It was very hard. I was looking to gather about 30 computers maybe to work with. However, the computers Gulf News provided made it easy for us. Otherwise, we couldn't have done this," said Pollitt.

"This kickstarted everything. We don't need to go around looking for computers and publicity now."

Students came out of the Gulf News basement carrying monitors, pushing carts carrying CPUs and struggling with cartons.

Despite the heat and humidity, students were in high spirits throughout the process. When offered refreshments, one of them piped up to request a seafood meal.

Building new computers

The project is expected to be completed by the end of Ramadan.

"By then each student will have fixed at least one computer. By the end of the course each student would have finished three. Of course we are not expecting all the computers to work, so we are hoping to have a minimum of 100 good computers," said Pollitt.

The computers will be installed with the free Linux operating system.

"Students will be building new computers from various computer machines. Then we will install a programme that can be easily updated and used," said Pollitt.

Students will be divided into groups, ten students each.

Delivery

On completion of the project, students will travel to help install the computers at their final destination be it in Lebanon or somewhere else.

"Working with this project will enable us not only to gain experience but also to extend a helping hand. We are hoping that after we are done, to visit the countries we are taking the computers to and help install them in the schools for the students to work on," said higher diploma student Mohammad Al Shimali.

"The students are so excited that some of them are looking at getting sponsors to send them on the trip," Pollitt said.

Due to the excellent response this project has generated from the students, Pollitt said he hoped the charity project would not only become part of a course, but the course itself in the future.

WHY THIS PROJECT A GREAT IDEA

"This project is a great opportunity to learn how to fix outdated computers."
-Abdullah Hasan, third year higher diploma, IT

"It is a good deed and a way to learn something new."
-Majid Mohammad, third year diploma, IT

"It's a great experience and something to benefit from in the future."
-Khalid Al Humaidan, second year higher diploma, IT

"It's part of an experience where we get to work with software and hardware. These are old model computers, which we haven't worked with before. So this is a learning experience, plus it is for charity."
-Hasan Al Jawi, second year higher diploma, IT

"This is a project that has not been introduced in any college. I think after what has happened in Lebanon, working for charity is not a bad idea. Also, it's good for us as we are learning and gaining experience."
-Ahmad Rashid, third year higher diploma, IT

"We learn about old systems and how to build new systems out of them."
-Majid Sultan, second year higher diploma, IT

"We have no experience and this project is a great opportunity to learn."
-Abdul Rahman Bin Hafiz, second year higher diploma, IT

"We volunteered to help. We had a choice and we decided to build the computers and give them to charity. Also, it's a learning experience."
-Ali Al Hawai, second year higher diploma, IT

"We are part of something new. This a challenge."
-Ahmad Al Najjar, second year higher diploma, IT

"I haven't tried anything like this before so I am willing to try."
-Mohammad Al Merri, second year higher diploma, IT

"To gain experience."
-Ebrahim Khalil, second year higher diploma, IT