This CNN Hero upcycles old computers to open new worlds for young Kenyans – and himself
It was not the first time a CNN Hero had helped to open up new horizons for a young man who desperately needed help.
That story – an African-American teenager’s struggle to achieve his full potential through technology – was one of the CNN Hero stories of 2014.
But this story upcycles old computers from the U.S. to open the same kinds of new horizons in Africa.
So-called “cyber literacy”
A lot of us who have been working in the technology field since the 1980s are well versed in how a high school or college student can use old computers to learn about programming and software.
We think a computer hacker is one of the most awesome things in the world.
I don’t use it to “hack” things. I use it to learn. I use it to be able to solve problems. I use it to be innovative and creative and to be able to think outside the box and to be able to explore new ideas.
Most people, especially people who don’t necessarily agree with me, get a computer. They get it because they think they are going to learn how to use it. Most of them spend a lot of time in front of it, just looking stuff up. They don’t spend the time to learn how to use it. They spend time looking at it, not learning how to use it.
I think there is much bigger opportunity in the future through the use of old computers, not just for young people, but for all people.
We can help people to become computer literate and to see that computers are tools, not toys.
A computer is a tool. It’s something you can think about and you can work with. And to be more creative, and to be more in control of their computing skills
The story begins in late December with the visit of the parents of Kibong Sibiya to the CNN Hero program at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Toronto.
While looking at old computers, Kibong was intrigued by the word “program.” He asked his father, a math teacher, for a computer to learn about the software that he thought he could do with it. But it was not until a CNN Hero visiting
