What sets Ateliers sans frontiers (ASF) apart is its commitment
to fulfilling two complementary remits: supporting professional integration
in France while participating in international aid initiatives. Its work
with the socially excluded in France enables it to provide associations
working abroad with high-quality equipment.
For the past three years, the ASF has been focused on sporting equipment
and only recently decided to diversify into recycling used computers.
Objectives: increase the number of jobs (ten more posts on top of the
thirty-two which currently exist), enable employees to take part in a
new, rewarding activity, and participate in reducing the digital divide
between the developed and developing worlds by providing a variety of
organisations in developing countries with computer hardware which has
been reconditioned in its workshop.
Social and professional integration at the service of international aid
Ateliers sans frontières owes its success to the close contacts established with the network of bodies working in the field of social integration as well as long-standing links with a large number of companies and local authorities enabling the retrieval of hardware for recycling.
A first contract for the delivery of 2,500 computers each year
However, this project requires a new workshop to be fully fitted out since
the association is moving to larger, more suitable premises in early 2004.
It contacted the Veolia Foundation which has agreed to provide funding
to the tune of 34,500 euros (total budget: 118,600 euros). This sum covers
work to partition off a specific area protected from the dust generated
by other activities as well as special work stations for sorting and reconditioning
computers.
Business opportunities are already starting to open up. A first contract
was signed with the British NGO, Computer Aid International, for delivery
of a container filled with 225 computers by end October 2004. Subsequently,
ASF will supply Computer Aid International on a monthly basis, i.e. over
2,500 computers annually. Other contracts are under negotiation. These
developments will eventually lead to the recruitment of two technical
supervisors to organise and run the workshop on top of the new professional
integration posts created. ASF is hoping to extend this activity to other
regions in order to create more jobs in France and improve computer access
in the developing world.
Similar project
