Bridging the Divide
Stopping Educational Exclusion
A recent project codesigned with a RYH corporate partner saw 95 tablets sent to young people lacking digital access.
This is how it unfolded.
Bridging the Digital Divide
How did the project come about?
As schools were returning this Autumn, one of our brilliant Raise Your Hands corporate partners got in touch. They wanted to help young people facing barriers to education.
We spoke to our charities about urgent needs and together designed a response.
We would provide a backpack of essentials to young people without access to the basic gear needed for school- stationery, a calculator, the bag itself.
Our charities flagged another urgent issue: young people struggling to get the digital access they need for education outside school – a laptop or computer, the kind of thing most of us take for granted.
The Solution
Alongside the main deliverable of 50 backpacks, our partner put out a call. They raised funds for an additional 95 tablets to go to young people who were struggling to get the digital access they need for education.
As an additional bonus, through their suppliers, they were able to source the tablets at a vastly reduced cost.
THE IMPACT: CHIVA
25 of the tablets were donated to Chiva, to go to young people living with HIV.
For many of these young people, socio-economic adversity effects their capacity to live well with their HIV.
Amanda Ely, CEO of Chiva:
“Having access to digital tech is essential for children to engage with education and to enable them to continue with educational activities outside of school.
“We know from our work during Covid how important tech is for children’s social interactions, and accessing support networks of others living with HIV. We are incredibly grateful for the very generous donation of these tablets.”
Two siblings that Chiva have just started supporting were in hospital having only recently had their HIV diagnosed. They were seriously unwell.
The family have considerable economic hardship and insecure housing.
Their parents were doing all they could in hospital to keep their kids up to speed with learning but it was tough given their limited resources.
The children have each received a tablet. This allows them to engage with educational activities online whilst they are recuperating at home.
It’s a huge relief for their parents. They were worried about how much the children are missing. But now they can keep up as they continue to get better and look forward to re-joining school.
Bridging the Digital Divide
This news article was posted on 15 December 2022.