Blogs

You might think computers are all alike, but you'd be wrong. When it comes to wiping all the data off them after being donated to us and then reinstalling Windows each seems to come up with its own set of demands. For instance, when working on a Compaq Presario with a photo card reader Windows renamed all the drives based on each input of the reader. This resulted in the hard drive being called drive i and one of the card slots being called C. Drivers for various devices used by the computer come zipped with installation predetermined to be on drive C. :Read more...

Our history has been a container to Africa every other year since inception: 2004, 2006, 2008. Guess what... this is 2010! This is April, the latest we can send a container is early November, leaving 8 months to raise over $6,000.00. Wanna help?

Winter in Minnesota is legend. E-quip Africa and volunteers are dedicated and all, but working in unheated storage space where packing tape won't even stick to cardboard is above and beyond the call of duty! There were weeks when variable temperatures caused the garage door to be frozen to the floor only on warmer days to have water soak into the boxes of clothing stored near by. That's why it looks like laundry day at EQA!

Hats off to the Willmar Public Library for allowing E-quip Africa to sort through their discarded books! With help from Mary Lou, Joan, Mary and Carrie we were able to rescue 33 boxes of great books for libraries in Ghana. Dick and John did all the grunt work so those boxes are now safely stored in the EQA warehouse. Thanks everyone!

At a recent conference for nonprofits I was “schooled” in the advantages of online giving and decided to give it a try before 2009 became history. I am happy to report the following:

 November 17, 2009 was designated as Give to the Max Day for Minnesota charities. E-quip Africa participated asking donors to visit the GiveMN website and donate online. Nineteen individuals contributed $1,580.00 and two more were motivated to do it the old fashioned way by sending checks totaling $250.00. Thank you very, very much! We LOVE our donors! :Read more...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one is worth a million. It captures the Ghanaian spirit and exemplifies why travel there is so much fun. Take some time and explore this man's wonderful photos.  Merry Christmas!

Sandals maker

You've seen those wavy little words and phrases you have to type to prove that you are human and not a computer, right? Never knew those things had a name, but today I learned they do. The practice is called CAPTCHA, pronounced just like you'd think as in "I'm gonna captcha that buttahfly in my net!" 

The word is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart."  (Hah! For more from Wikipedia, click here.)

E-quip Africa's promise: :Read more...

My friend, Eddie Amoah from Takoradi is installing air conditioning units in Ghana that recieve up to 60% of their power from a solar panel that is sold with the unit. Since AC is very useful, very desirable and very popular at least in hotels and restaurants in that sub-Saharan country, this is a great step forward in energy conservation.

The last time Doug visited Ghana the country was experiencing a very real power shortage. Whole cities would be shut disconnected from the power grid on a rotating basis. It must have wreaked havoc on businesses when it was their city's turn to go dark. Anything that will help reduce power needs is a good thing for all of us. Way to go Eddie!

GiveMN is a new nonprofit organization that has made it possible for small nonprofits like E-quip Africa to accept donations online. Sure, our webmaster (bless her sweet heart) could add a button taking us to PayPal or some other service where a fee or percentage might be charged. Due to some timely and generous grants to giveMN, this service is free to U.S. registered nonprofits in Minnesota. :Read more...

After attending the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) and Minnesota Council for Foundations (MCF) joint conference (joined together, not a conference about joints!) Doug learned about GiveMN, an online site where donations may be made to any and all Minnesota nonprofits. Have you heard about having your gifts matched on "Give to the Max Day?"  Click here to learn more. :Read more...