Eyesight is very precious. People fear sight loss more than serious illnesses like diabetes or the loss of a limb. The cost of sight loss to individuals and to society as a whole is vast. Yet eye research is a low priority and as a result is shockingly underfunded.

The Macular Society has made it their responsibility to work to find a cure for this disease. They have a mission to beat the fear and isolation of macular disease by funding world-class research and providing the best advice and support.

For further details visit their website:
Macular Society

We will once again be participating in Older People’s Day in St. Albans.  Computer Friendly is dedicated to helping you get to grips with computers, tablets and smartphones. We provide a range of courses and workshops, and free drop-in centres where you can get hands-on help and advice. Come and speak to our friendly and knowledgeable representatives.

You may be reflecting on what’s happened during the past year and thinking about what you want to achieve next year, so how do you think Computer Friendly can help you? What would you like to learn about?

Our timetable for courses starting in November is now available. Take a look at our November courses and book early to avoid disappointment:

November Courses Timetable

In addition to our wide range of existing courses, we are planning our programme for next year and would like your views on which courses you would like us to offer. Contact  our booking team on 01727 617359 or email: courses@cfsta.org

Visit our Timetables page for full details. Goto Page

Can you use an Apple iPad or Android tablet?

Why not give a bit of your time helping our students, mainly older people, to get online with their new tablets, either Android or Apple? We will help you get started to keep our ‘Starting Off With’ courses running in St Albans and Harpenden. The feedback we get from our students is great to read!

Click on Getting Involved and complete our Volunteer Enquiry form, or call our Courses helpline and they will put you in touch with our Volunteer Coordinator to discuss what is involved.

Ring 01727 617359 or email volunteering@computerfriendly.org.uk for more information!

Tony Bourke delivering laptops to Boxmoor Primary School, Hemel Hempstead.

Nobody likes to throw away a laptop just because it’s old. That’s why many of us have one in the cupboard.

We take donated laptops to fix, upgrade and refurbish as best we can into Windows 10 laptops and CloudReady ChromeOS devices.

Schools then tell us what they need to keep their pupils online when they are isolating or working from home.

So what’s the secret? Well, a team of dedicated unpaid enthusiast volunteers, some new high speed memory drives (SSDs) and a lot of tinkering! We can even reuse many components from broken laptops: keyboards, screens, batteries, memory and power supplies are often interchangeable to prolong the life of another laptop. “Two become one”, as they say in the song.

How you can help us…

Go on! Bring us your old laptops and we’ll give them a new lease of life in the hands of the younger members of our society. (A few of the laptops are older than their users!)

As well as laptops, we can also reuse tablets and smartphones for schools and other supporting organisations as listed below.

Click <<here>> for our wish list of what we would like to receive.

To recycle your item, simply send an email to recycle@computerfriendly.org.uk or phone us on 01727 617359.

Oh, if you are worried about any data left on your hard disk storage in your laptop, click <<here>> to see the shredder we used to destroy and recycle the old hard disks. All devices are wiped / factory reset.

The stats…

To date, we have delivered 405 devices made up of: 305 Laptops, 71 Tablets (58 iPads & 13 Android), 14 Desktops, 5 iMacs, 1 All-in-one PC screen, 1 Printer, 7 Smartphones.

These were delivered to 28 schools as well as Herts Police Domestic Violence team, Herts Leavers from Care, Luton Probation Service, Emmaus St Albans, Modern Victims of Slavery, The Vineyard, HAWA St Albans, Young People’s Support Team, Beds CC, Catholic Worker Farm, Watford.

That’s at least 833kg of equipment (nearly a tonne) that hasn’t ended up at the dump.

We estimate that between us we have saved 87,000kg of CO₂ (yes, 87 tonnes!) from being created, that’s equivalent to 89 Return transatlantic flights (based on new laptop CO₂ estimated by The Restart Project data).

Who have you helped so far?

Here are the names of some of those that benefited from your donations:

Last year Herts Advertiser published a complimentary article about what we were doing. Click here to read the article, and what Cathy Longhurst, headteacher at Mandeville School, said about how we help their students.

Once again, to recycle your item, simply email recycle@computerfriendly.org.uk or phone us on 01727 617359.