#Chances4Children: Project launched to donate old laptops to disadvantaged students
Ella Doyle
Thursday, January 14, 2021
A new campaign has been launched to encourage people to donate old and unused laptops to help disadvantaged students with remote learning.
Electronics charity The Restart Project has announced it will repair and redistribute all laptops and tablets donated and is calling on those with tech skills to volunteer with their local tech charities to refurbish unused laptops.
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About nine per cent of children in the UK do not currently have access to a laptop, tablet or desktop at home.
The scheme aims to close the digital divide, which negatively impacts disadvantaged students as a lack of technology means they have struggled to access education at home.
The charity has said it will act as a virtual help-desk, matching laptops in need of repair to home-based tech volunteers.
The announcement comes after a recent survey by the Sutton Trust revealed that just 10 per cent of teachers reported that all of their students have adequate access to technology for remote learning.
It also revealed two thirds (66 per cent) of senior leaders in state schools reported needed to source IT equipment for disadvantaged pupils themselves whilst waiting for government support.
The Restart Project will work with eight local charitable organisations which repair laptops and tablets, including Catbytes in Lewisham and Mer-T in Islington. Many of these are currently fundraising in order to buy spare parts for computers.
Damian Griffiths of Catbytes CIC, a community interest company working to tackle digital exclusion in south London, said: “The response has been great but there are currently still thousands of children in Lewisham doing their homework on smartphones.
“We desperately need donated laptops so we can wipe them, refurbish them, and distribute them to the schools that are requesting them from us.”
Vanessa Ternes, London network coordinator for Restart, said: “Last year we worked with community reuse projects, and in the coming months we can still work closely together, despite the challenges, to increase the number of students who have access to laptops.
