Nearly 100 computers that might have ended up in a landfill are about to find new life in Honduras, thanks to students at Southwestern University.

The computers were shipped to Honduras June 19 after being refurbished this spring by students in Southwestern's Paideia program. Six of those students will be going to Honduras July 27-Aug. 2 to help install them, along with two faculty members and representatives from Southwestern's Information Technology Service (ITS) department and Office of Civic Engagement.

Southwestern students, faculty and staff members have been running a program to provide computers for children in Honduras since 2002. The project is done in conjunction with Save the Children Honduras.

"Computers that are seven or eight years old are lasting another three to four years down there," said David Williamson, a Southwestern ITS staff member who has been involved with the program since its inception. "The students use them during the day and their family members and parents use them on the weekends. It is amazing how many people one computer can touch."

Each year, the project continues to grow. This year, for example, Southwestern sent 17 laptop computers to Honduras in addition to 79 desktop computers. The laptops will be given to staff members at Save the Children in La Esperanza to use as they make their rounds covering two different states in Honduras.

"On our last trip we noticed a lot of the support staff for Save the Children didn't have any way of keeping track of the people they work with," Williamson said. He purchased adapters that will enable the staff members to recharge the laptops from the cigarette lighters in their cars when they are travelling.

For the first time this year, the computer shipment also included some replacement parts that Williamson was able to get donated from IBM. The extra hard drives and CD-ROM drives will be used to repair computers that Southwestern previously sent to Honduras. "The roads down there are pretty rough, so some of the optical drives don't make it," Williamson said.

Other donors to the project include the Trull Foundation in Palacios, Texas, which donated $3,000 to fund travel expenses, and Dole Food Company, which provided the shipping container at reduced cost.

The group that is going to Honduras this summer will help install the computers in at least four schools in villages around La Esperanza, which is located in the western part of Honduras. Williamson said they plan to spend some extra time training students and teachers in how to use the computers, as well as repair them. "We want to spend more a little more quality time with them this year," he said. Paideia students who speak Spanish worked with ITS to write down some basic instructions for fixing computers that they will be able to leave at the schools.

Brian Tidwell, a junior anthropology major, will be making his second trip to Honduras this year. "It feels really great to know you are helping someone help themselves," Tidwell said. Tidwell hopes to work with non-profits after he graduates so he said the Honduras program "has been a nice trial run" for him.

Students from three different Paideia groups at Southwestern were involved with the Honduras project this year. Steven Marble, an associate professor of education, is going to Honduras this year to see how his Paideia group can help with the project in coming years. "We don't just want to replicate what has been done in the past," Marble said. "Now that we are supplying this technology, we want to think about what can be done with it in small, rural communities."

For example, he said, communities might be able to use the computers to store health care records. "I want to be able to help my students think about this problem," he said.