Thousands of old but operational computers are thrown away every year in urban centers throughout the world, while most poor rural high school students in most countries have never used a computer. Obstacles which keep a used computer from being successfully placed in a rural high school include lack of computer skills on the part of the high school teacher, lack of awareness on the part of the urban user, screening and repair costs, shipping costs, and electrical power availability.

This paper describes a program located at KCG (Kyoto School of Computer Science), Kyoto, Japan, which overcomes some of the obstacles to successful donation by forming a long-term partnership with the recipient country. The partnership between KCG and the recipient country involves the donation of both computers and computer instruction, so that high school teachers in the recipient country learn skills necessary to use the computers. The recipient country is responsible for distribution of the computers within the country, and for providing electrical power to the schools during the hours of computer instruction. Since 1991, ten such partnerships have been formed, and three have resulted in multiple donations; in all, more than 3000 personal computers have been donated.