Brighton Teen's Nonprofit Sends Dozens Of Used Colorado Laptops To Africa
BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4) - After graduating from Colorado high schools, teenagers around the Front Range chose to donate their school-issued laptops to children in Africa. Friends of Angel Mollel, 18, donated their computers to her nonprofit 1Love, which helps to improve the lives of those from her native village of Ormelili in Tanzania.
"Most people (in my birth village) don't know how to use a laptop," Mollel told CBS4's Dillon Thomas. "The technology advancement in my village is so far behind. Like, I took an iPad (with me when I visited) and they thought it was a battery."
Mollel was adopted several years ago and attended Brighton High School. Her adoptive father assisted her in creating 1Love to help those back in her village. Since the nonprofit started, Mollel has sent goods and money back to her village to help educate children there. Her friends at Brighton High quickly started backing her mission and getting involved. One friend, Rachel, thought of asking seniors to donate their school-issued laptops to those in Tanzania.
"It was all over social media," Mollel said. "One by one they just started coming in with their Chromebooks."
Dozens of laptops were gathered in a short period of time, including one once owned by classmate Sami DeMers.
"I was like, 'Take mine, take whatever you need,'" DeMers said. "There are kids out there who need the Chromebooks more than we do."
Mollel said she intended to sell some of the laptops to fund the nonprofit, while sending the rest to kids in Africa for their education. She said her brother and sister would be able to prepare for their dream jobs of being accountants with the laptops.
"I know a lot of kids over there don't have the technology and resources we have. Because, Angel has described what it is like back at her home," DeMers said.
Mollel said she would continue to accept donations, including laptops, in hope of making sure those in her village in Tanzania would be prepared for jobs in larger cities if they desired to move on. She said teenagers in Colorado were coming together to make sure students in Africa were also succeeding in life.
"It is just incredible to have that kind of support. I am truly thankful for them," Mollel said.
