A new program at the Cape Fear Literacy Council aims to donate used computers to Wilmington residents who have no access to a personal computer.

The nonprofit Literacy Council hopes to build on a program organizers started this summer, offering a computer skills class to students to teach basic computer operations and giving them the refurbished systems. The Literacy Council, so far, has provided a total of five of the computers to Wilmington residents through the program.

University of North Carolina Wilmington graduate student Melissa Smith started the program and held her first class on Aug 10. “It was really easy to find computers and to upgrade them.” Smith said. “People get new computers because they think the old ones are ‘broken,’ but usually they are still useful, especially for computer beginners who just want to go online.”

All of the systems have been converted to run on the Jolicloud operating system due to its similarity to a tablet computer. “Since these are used systems, we can’t guarantee that Windows would be the best choice for an operating system.” said Yasmin Tomkinson, the adult basic literacy director for the council. “Jolicloud is very similar to a smartphone or tablet, so it’s not too demanding on the system but still allows internet access.”

Smith left for graduate school after summer vacation ended, but she hopes to return next summer. In the meantime, residents are able to take a number of free computer classes offered by the Literary Council with the council’s computers.