KEETCH CALLS FOR 'PHONES 4 AFRICA'

1.56.57pm GMT Thu 19th Oct 2006

Paul Keetch, MP for Hereford, is calling on the public to donate their old, unwanted handsets to African countries.

On October 18 2006, the "Phones 4 Africa" campaign was launched, which will send old, unwanted mobile phones to be reconditioned and reused in African nations.

"Every hour 1712 mobile phones are upgraded in the UK alone after around 18 months of use, despite having a lifespan of around 10 years. In Herefordshire up to 50,000 people may upgrade their phones each year, in line with the UK average. If all mobile phone users in the UK were to throw away their handsets we'd be land filling around £650,000 of silver each year," Mr Keetch said.

"Wider access to communications in Africa has proven to be an important element in tackling poverty. Having a phone means having a voice and that will help people out of poverty. In many countries, mobile phone operators have existing transmission for up to 80% of the land area but cannot afford to subsidise handsets. Reconditioned handsets can fill the gap and be put straight in to use across the African continent."

"With poor infrastructure in roads and transport in African countries, having a mobile phone can be vital to the lives of individuals. This allows fishermen or coffee growers to call around to find the best prices for their stock; children can keep in touch with their parents and more importantly in emergency cases where the nearest hospital is many miles away people can call for help and diagnoses, making the difference between life and death."

"Many poor people in African countries are in the private sector - farmers, shopkeepers and business managers - but they are also the people that need the most help. It is important that we in the UK help budding entrepreneurs to help themselves" said MP Paul Keetch.

Peter Gabriel, the singer, attended the meeting and supports this initiative, he said:

"In 2 years mobile phones will have the same capacity as laptops have at the moment and they will transform education in remote locations. I work with the Mandela Foundation which worked with coffee growers in Zimbabwe who were being ripped off by middle men. As soon as they had mobile phones they were able to get commodity prices directly from the Chicago Exchange. This transformed their local economy."

For those wishing to make donations, phones can be sent to the freepost address: FREEPOST Fonebank Vodafone Africa