Call for donations for Healthcare Information Technology for Africa e.V. (HITA e.V.)
Dear readers,
lately we have received many requests for cell phones, tablets, laptops, PCs and other devices. To make a long story short! Yes, we do - always! For our goal of supporting the training and work of non-medical personnel in rural areas of Africa, we are in constant need of telecommunications and information technology. In addition to the items mentioned above, this also includes printers, copiers, network equipment (routers, switches), peripherals such as keyboards or mice, servers, etc.
We ask that you only send us equipment that is fit for use, not broken or in need of repair. We check every part we send to Ghana before we load it into the containers. All hard drives and other storage devices are processed according to a certified procedure, so we can guarantee that no data is sent with them to Ghana. For our Computer Labs (https://hita-ev.org/projekte/hita-pc-labore/) we constantly need new computers with monitors or laptops, which we refurbish together with partners.
Ideally, the devices are equipped with all necessary accessories, especially charging cables. If they are no longer available, we will still gladly accept the equipment.
Used smartphones also play a special role for us. For our goals of improving the training of nurses and midwives on the one hand (https://hita-ev.org/projekte/unterstuetzung-der-ausbildung/), but also, on the other hand, to enable these occupational groups to access up-to-date information or even experts, they need smartphones. Employers in the social and medical sectors can provide smartphones for only a few managers.
The vast majority of nurses and midwives therefore rely on their private cell phones. These are very of "China-made", which is seen as a synonym for poor quality. Often, these are devices that have nothing in common with the devices we know - they are very often "look alikes", i.e. (pirated) copies from some noname manufacturers. These devices are very inexpensive and available everywhere, but they cannot compare at all with the devices we know and their features. Many services are deactivated or not available at all. The internet access and the cameras are of very poor quality and partly not usable at all. This is why cell phones from Asia, Europe or the USA - even older models - are so sought-after.
As has been described more often elsewhere, countries like Ghana are unlikely to be able to establish network-based Internet services in the future. Internet access will increasingly rely on mobile devices and thus on 3G, 4G and 5G networks (cf. for this e.g. https://www.nperf.com/de/). This means that we will be increasingly dependent on mobile devices for our projects.
We also want to collect medical equipment and transport it to Ghana. Actually, we can use all medical devices, however, maintenance and ensuring proper use is crucial here as well. We are working here with universities and selected hospitals to ensure the sustainable use of these devices.
Last but not least, we support various schools, especially in the Volta Region. These schools lack everything. Therefore, we try to collect teaching and instructional materials and bring them to Ghana as well. From laminators to Eding pens, from crayons to colored pencils, from blackboards to screens, from laptops to beamers, there is simply a lack of everything. If you can imagine to support a school or even to start a partnership with a school in Ghana, please contact us by e-mail spenden@hita-ev.org.
Perhaps a few basic words about donations: As a signatory to the Transparent Civil Society initiative, which was launched by Transparency International Deutschland e.V., among others, HITA e.V. has committed itself to disclosing, in accordance with a certain format, what goals the association pursues, where its funds come from, how they are used, and who decides how they are used (https://hita-ev.org/unterstuetzen/). For questions regarding donations, you can also contact our donations officer at any time (hildegard.mackert@hita-ev.org). She is your contact person for questions regarding monetary or in-kind donations, support opportunities, sponsorships, etc.
If you have equipment that you would like to give to us and thereby support the local people in Ghana, please contact us by e-mail at info@hita-ev.org.
At the very end, one more remark: of course we also need monetary donations!
Cash donations have the great advantage for us that they can be used very flexibly. This allows us to use monetary donations as we see fit and as needed. To compensate for the disadvantage of monetary donations, namely that the donor often finds it difficult to understand what is really being done, supported or accomplished with the money, we offer our donors the option of always being able to specify for which purposes or projects the monetary donations are to be used. This way, you as a donor always have the possibility to decide yourself what should happen with the money you donate. By the way, we keep our association structures as lean as possible to ensure that the entire amount donated goes to our projects in Ghana.
Thank you very much!