I currently work for a company that is rich, I mean mega rich. At the moment virtually hundreds of computers get replaced by more modern ones (which off course everybody needs, doing the odd word processing …). In the past a lot of these machines have been donated to schools in the area, but they seem to be pretty much saturated with stuff, and owning old, I mean very old hardware can be more of a liability these days.
Anyway, my idea was to get a good number of these machines and set up a computer cabinet in the village that I live in, Dipkarpaz, or Rizokarpaso in Greek. In this village we have four schools, two for the Greek speaking kids, two for the Turkish lot. Since Easter this year the village has a very fast internet connection, so my idea was to teach the kids from both sides on web development, not independently, but together, in English (since my Turkish is rudimentary and my Greek practically non-existent).
Well, my enthusiasm was very much dampended when I approached this mega-rich company, asking, if I could have twenty or so systems for the stated purpose, releaving the corporation of having to scrap them. Hooray, the initial reaction was positive. What a good idea is was, how good it would be to bridge cultural and deep rooted emotional gaps and bla bla bla. The outcome was, well, very very disappointing: Since the TRNC (the Turkish speaking and administered North of Cyprus) is not a recognised country, and as such “does not exist”, there shall be no (NO) assistance with anything there.
Now I am stuck: How am I going to explain this back in “my” village? Here is me, a German, on a peace mission, and I am not even allowed to take scrapped computers for an ever so tiny project for kids.
I cannot do much for the grown-ups, they grew up with the civil war, the occupation, the separation etc., and many families still do not know, where their loved ones are buried. But, for heavens sake, the children are building the future, and I would have hoped that anything that can help making the kids get along and talk to each other, would have been greeted with enthusiasm. Not so.
I shall think of something else. Watch this space!!!
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