Anyone in UK or Europe who can take charity laptop to Gambia

[poshgeordie]

We have a contact in The Gambia who desparately needs a laptop. A colleague met him on a recent visit and realised he has potentially great IT skills but no means of bettering himself from them.
The colleague wants to offer him some work which will help him improve and use those skills, and to offer other assistance with setting up and running a business etc.

We've got a great old Toshiba almost ready to go but the problem is that it's going to cost £100 + to ship it out, to say nothing of dealing with Customs at the other end.

A UK charity did agree to help but have had to withdraw because they're already taking out too many laptops, so I'm looking for someone who's going out, on holiday for instance, who can take it out and drop it off with the chap.

To answer questions about the legality or otherwise of this, this is a "difficult" area because strictly speaking it should be fully disclosed to Customs and Excise, however we're talking about a £50 laptop which will give an intelligent well educated person the best opportunity he's likely to get to get out of the awful poverty trap most people over there find themselves in.

It's a big ask, but I've found a lot of generous people in these forums, so if there's any chance you could help, please PM or post a reply. Doing either doesn't commit you to anything so don't worry if you feel you can't help after we've "spoken".

Thanks in advance and ask any questions.

[killer]

Nick,
If I hear of anyone going there I'll let you know. This sounds like a real charity ... going to people that need, rather than dumping stuff nobody needs.

[killer]

I just thought ... there must be loads of people from the UK that go to the Gambia every year. Some book online, others use travel agents. How about contacting a big travel agency, e.g. Thomas Cook?

[poshgeordie]

I did think of that too, but I'm hoping we can keep it simple.

Thanks for asking around - I'm sure between us we'll find someone going out there.

[sarbin]

thanks for what you're trying to do. it seems an extremely worthy cause.