I worked on an OSS project and we had a volunteer working from Tobago. His computer wasn't working properly so we sent him a new one.
It got smashed by customs. Literally.
Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
131–140 of 291 posts
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#132Western way of problem solving . Still remember OLPC (ONE LAPTOP LER CHILD).
China would have 50$ laptops for all.
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#133I help a good friend run a small business in Africa, and this story is exactly why, every time I go visit, I fill my luggage with stuff she needs. Laptops, car engine turbos, espresso machines, fryers, bottles of shampoo, printers, anything. The cheapest and most reliable way to deliver things there is to take a plane yourself and carry the things with you. This whole mess is why, despite being a poor continent, the…
Car engine turbo? Can I get a photo of that packing?
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#134My question, does Uganda not have used laptops available for sale? At the point where you're about to spend $200 on shipping, why not consider just doing a money order so the guy can find one locally. Shipping things overseas is such a convoluted process. My wife wanted to send a company Christmas gift bundle (literally just company merch and some candy) to two Filipino employees. One of the workers says that only DH…
I am Ugandan, that $200 could have gone a long way buying used locally , case in point https://jiji.ug/central-division/computers-and-laptops/lapto... , a used Macbook pro with some change to spare.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
Is that representative of the pricing? 550 000 USh is the equivalent of 145 USD, which is a lot for a 2011 13" MBP with a HD drive! That will be quite slow...
1.5 years ago I sold a 13" 2012 MBP with 500 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM on the used market here in Norway, and I couldn't fetch more than 90 USD... Half the value in the SSD itself?
And a 13" 2015 MBP with 256 GB and 16 GB RAM and new battery(!) I only managed to get 200 USD for, even though I'd tried for months for higher prices
So it seems like there's some market inefficiency here :/
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#135We have a couple co-op members in Uganda and their billing addresses are always distinct. Along the lines of "Behind the Gas Station, SomeCity, Uganda." They're also extraordinarily good engineers so idk wtf is going on in Uganda. A lot of folks from there come work in Taiwan, I guess the pay and quality of life is better here.
> They're also extraordinarily good engineers so idk wtf is going on in Uganda.
Uganda has no respect for talent. When I was there it looked like most people are just trying to survive the next day, tbh. Because there is no platform to develop their talent. Also Uganda seems to be more focused on agriculture so it gets more incentives than other industries.
But you're right about the talented part, there are a lot of good engineers there but lack the opportunity. Remember meeting one who worked at Boeing in Missouri and he even had a few patents in the aerospace domain.
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is unfortunately also one of the biggest problems with donating to NGOs that operate in many foreign countries. Much of the aid money gets stolen by corrupt officials and local criminals. Donors have to check carefully that NGOs are legitimately benefiting the intended recipients.
Yes, but it's important to note that just because a lot of aid is ineffective doesn't mean it all is. If you want to give to very poor people and be confident most (85%+) actually gets to them I encourage you to take a look at https://www.givedirectly.org/ . Full disclosure, I'm an unpaid trustee of the UK sister charity
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Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#137I am Ugandan. I've shipped electronics and Laptops for Work quite a bit, and OP is right, the system is broken, it stays this way because a lot of corrupt individuals benefit from this mess. However, OP showed a degree of Hubris here, a mistake lots of us make when dealing with foreign countries, just because it works this way here, so it should work that way in XYZ. OP would have saved themselves lots of time and mo…
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Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#138What is appropriate compensation for someone handling a bar of gold?
Some could argue corruption is an attempt to equalise on that.
Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#139Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is unfortunately also one of the biggest problems with donating to NGOs that operate in many foreign countries. Much of the aid money gets stolen by corrupt officials and local criminals. Donors have to check carefully that NGOs are legitimately benefiting the intended recipients.
"much" is an unqualified and unjustified word here. It definitely happens but this would at most affect a tiny fraction of donor money. Many of the NGOs have strict no-bribery policies, else they would not receive support from bodies like the EU (which is the biggest humanitarian donor on the planet). In some cases the choice may be between "letting people starve" and "feeding people but the local warlord extracts so…
>a tiny fraction of donor money.
that is not what happened for example in Gaza. UNRWA sent billions to Gaza where that aid was hijacked by HAMAS, and even when the aid was distributed to people outside of HAMAS, HAMAS directly controlled the distribution of that aid. And i don't see UN operating any different at the other places too.
Or like Rubio said:
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/10/24/unrwa-is-subsidiary-...
"U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of being “a subsidiary of Hamas” "