-
- Before Refurb
-
- After Refurb
Based in Hook, Laptops for Learning is a community effort started by David Harper, supported by Oscar Gonzales, with the aim of refurbishing unused laptops, PCs, and tablets to enable online education for children, and adult learning charities.
We caught up with David and Oscar to find out more about Laptops for Learning and how residents who have spare laptops might be able to support this wonderful initiative.
David told us: “In March and April 2020 COVID hit big time and in the UK the government promised thousands of laptops for school pupils so that they could continue learning during lockdown. It didn’t happen.
“The morning news was talking about a massive shortfall of laptops meaning pupils were trying to do work on mobile phones, inadequate tablets etc. A light came on in my head. I had a spare laptop I didn’t need so I could give it to a school to lend out.
“Then I thought, how many unused laptops are out there and how do I wrest them from their owners? I went to the Odiham Facebook page and posted a begging post. I was shocked at the generosity and kindness of our Odiham community. Then I decided to expand the postings to all the local villages’ Facebook pages and was giving them to families as well as schools.
“With Multiple Sclerosis my work window was 2 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week. Our spare bedroom, dining room and garage all became involved. 93 laptops given away later my body started to collapse.
“The good news is I was able to find somebody to take over the day to day running of this endeavour in Oscar Gonzalez from Hook, his main role is as a househusband supporting his wife and 3 daughters, but having worked for 10 years in the IT sector Oscar was keen to dust off his skills and when he has the time he is passionate to give older redundant laptops/PCs and even broken equipment a chance to connect the unconnected.
“We approach this as a joint effort now, Oscar manages the techy side whilst I focus on spreading the word. We would love to hear from you via the Laptops for Learning Facebook page if you have any unwanted broken laptops or PCs that run at the very minimum: Windows 7 onwards, Mac OS 2012 onwards, iPad and equivalent tablet devices.
“All data is securely wiped and any equipment donations that can’t be repaired will have any useful components removed to enable us to potentially fix other laptops. Any remaining unused components will be sent for specialist recycling.”