Ghana native leads effort to send computers to villages

by Tiffany March

To the customers at the Columbia Heights Best Buy in Washington, D.C., Seth Owusu of Laurel is a loyal member of the Geek Squad, a group of tech-savvy computer experts. But to the children from 18 villages in Ghana and Nigeria, he has opened up a new world of technology by bringing computers to their schools.

Owusu, 42, said his desire to impact others was ignited as a child in Ghana when a group of missionaries visited his village school.

“It was so amazing… they put a lot of smiles on kids’ faces. It gets you thinking,” Owusu said.

He came to the United States in 1991 and worked at a Hechinger warehouse to save enough for a college education.

The scanner at his job introduced him to technology, and he was “blown away by the effectiveness of computers.” He enrolled in the TESST College of Technology in Beltsville in 2000, and launched Entire Village Computers Organization Inc. in 2004.

He buys most of the computers and refurbishes them at his home. EVCO receives occasional donations of computers and financial assistance, but Owusu pays for most of the project. To help fund a trip to Ghana in 2006, Owusu said he sold his townhouse in Greenbelt.

Randy Ratliff, a Geek Squad City member in Hillview, Ky., said he received permission from Best Buy’s corporate headquarters to donate several dozen computers to EVCO. Nationwide, Ratliff said Best Buy repairs about 3,000 computers a day and customers enrolled in a product protection plan get a new computer on their fourth repair within a year.

“We get about 50 to 100 of those [used] computers a day,” Ratliff said. “We can fit that need at really no expense, and he needs these computers. You can get out-of-date computers from other places, but these are really good computers — some are brand new.”

Schools sign on to a three-year program that involves continued training and maintenance, Owusu said. They also agree to participate in community service projects and to host forums on issues like HIV/AIDS and tribal wars.

Before a donation, EVCO will talk to the village chief, school leaders and parents.

“I tell them I grew up like the little kid sitting there. If we all work together, what can we do?” Owusu said.

So far, EVCO has donated computers to 17 schools in Ghana and one in Nigeria and Owusu is planning a fall trip to South Africa. EVCO has 52 pending applications for schools asking for donations.

Tony Cremer, the network administrator for Bernstein Management Corp. in Friendship Heights, has refurbished and donated more than 20 computers and other equipment the company no longer needs.

“It definitely looks like a positive endeavor and we’re happy to support it,” Cremer said.

Bethesda resident Jon Riskind recently donated a computer, which he saw in an EVCO video.

“I had a computer but got a new one and wanted to do something with it besides throwing it in the trash,” he said. “It makes me feel great [to see it put to good use].”

The recent economic downturn has limited Owusu’s resources, but he said he is not discouraged.

“I’m very, very hopeful,” he said. “We’re going to make so much of an impact.”