Even if kids somehow got the laptops, there would be overwhelming pressure in a lot of families to sell them (not just because it could earn one or two month's salary, but you'd also shed the risk of having it destroyed or stolen, and the neighbors might otherwise assume you have more money than you really do because you seem to be able to afford expensive electronics).

An actual African here, I apologise in advance for the rant.

Your comment is an amazing over-generalization of 1.1 billion people in 54 countries, Africa is a very diverse place, but you only see the worst of it ("feed these sorry kids for only a dollar a day")

The article itself was rather vague on where exactly the laptops are sent (to schools? NGOs? families?), not even the country (or region) are mentioned. No sir, 'computers are being sent to Africa'.

I think you're projecting western values (strong individualism) to the African context, and your conclusion "neighbours jealous of expensive electronics". How about "neighbours kids also share in using the expensive electronics"? In rural areas, residential clusters are typically made of extended family, so that neighbour is probably a sister or cousin.

I have lived in 3 countries in southern (small 's') Africa, I can assure you that education is seen as more important that "2 months salary", some parents pay way more than that in annual school fees.

You're definitely right, I should have added more qualifiers to that comment. I didn't want to paint the entire continent with a broad brush, but rather caution against blind giving with the expectation that things will go right.

The mentality that I described is absolutely prevalent in Benin, where I lived for several years. So what I should have said was, there's at least one example of counter-intuitive social dynamics in one African country, so it would make sense to explore those in the place where you intend to make a donation.

Unless you could make an app for that ... then get it funded.