Redemtech Recognizes World Habitat Day on Oct. 5

As a high school student suffering through freshman English class many years ago, I found myself delegated to read the works of William Wordsworth, England’s poet laureate, as part of a semester-long assignment. Teams of two were elected to explore the works of famous English authors and share our findings in a term paper and presentation to the class.

And with whom was I assigned to discover the poetry of the leader of that literary movement called romanticism, which celebrated nature and sensitive human emotions? The bright-eyed Brenda that every guy in the class wanted as his study partner? No, I was teamed with a guy named Lance with whom I regularly collided on the football field after school.

Not that Lance wasn’t a nice fellow and a good friend, but we were more comfortable trying to knock each other’s helmets off as Coach Frost screamed that my roughing the passer was killing him and Lance couldn’t move the ball down the field if his life depended on it. What did we know about Wordsworth and his romantic poetry?

But when we weren’t out on the field loosening our teeth on the sod, we read Wordsworth’s poetry and got to know the man who toured France on foot during the 1790s and witnessed first-hand the impact of the French Revolution. I began to understand how words could be used creatively to express views on social justice and human suffering.

A line from Wordsworth’s poem Guilt and Sorrow still remains with me today and gets more poignant as time moves forward. In this long poem about a vagabond wandering a strange land and finding no place to call home, Wordsworth wrote:

“And homeless near a thousand homes I stood,
And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.”

To be homeless remains one of the worst fears of human existence, even in a time of high technology and social advancement. More than 100 million people in the world today are homeless, while millions more live in poverty housing conditions that are deplorable for human beings.

For this reason, Habitat for Humanity International is raising awareness about the global issue of homelessness by hosting World Habitat Day on Oct. 5, offering an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that all people have a safe, decent place to call home. From a statistical standpoint, Habitat for Humanity would need to build 2 million homes every year for the next 50 years to solve the present worldwide housing crisis. Even if that is accomplished, ever-expanding growth trends around the world would require another 1 billion houses at the end of the half-century, as the problem of homelessness continues to swell.

Redemtech is working with Habitat for Humanity to help the non-profit homebuilding organization toward a goal of providing refurbished computers to families who occupy Habitat homes. Redemtech is partnering with its strong customer base to grow the project so that ultimately every Habitat house built can be equipped with a refurbished computer and other donated equipment supplied by Redemtech.

Redemtech heartily supports World Habitat Day and hopes its customers and other partners will commit to the objective of ending homelessness. Redemtech’s refurbished computers are built to last and will help many Habitat families. By establishing a sustainable flow of refurbished PCs for donation, Redemtech helps other companies and organizations determine the best use for decommissioned and surplus equipment.

The abundant inventory required for supplying refurbished equipment to Habitat homes already exists with customers who seek to efficiently retire used hardware so that refurbishment can extend the lifecycle of those computers. Many Redemtech customers already are aligned with Habitat for Humanity through funding and volunteers, so the addition of donating computers that Habitat families can utilize to improve the quality of their lives is a natural fit.

The refurbished computers Redemtech provides contain Windows XP and the Microsoft Office Suite and come with monitors, keyboards and mice. The computers are part of the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program, which helps to make computers available to low-income families, schools and nonprofit organizations and also provides technical support for the families.

Wordsworth recognized the basic needs of humans and wrote about “suffering what no endurance could assuage.” More than two centuries after Wordsworth penned those words, the problems of providing every human being with a safe place to live is more important than ever.

To learn more about Habitat for Humanity International or World Habitat Day, go here. To see Redemtech’s press release regarding the company’s donation of 75 refurbished computers to Habitat for Humanity – Greater Columbus in June, visit here.

Comments

[Jill Vaske]

Bart, You have such a talent for expressing our message. I am honored to have you working with us. This sentiment of mine was lacking when you originally sent me the blog and I was in a rush, but I really do tremendously admire the quality of your message and you. Thank you. Jill