Tech for all

Challenges

Rising to the challenge

The last couple have years have been challenging for everyone. The first lockdown was a surprise to most people. We were very lucky that neither of us was very ill with covid, and the worst that happened for us was being separated from our loved ones for a long time.

Suddenly having to work from home brought it’s own problems. We weren’t set up for home working, as we’d always had an office. Malcolm had a small desk in the dining room which he used as a home office space, and I was working from one of the spare bedrooms with a laptop. Not ideal, uncomfortable, and the laptop didn’t have all of the programs that I use, so there were things I just couldn’t do. We’re also used to working in the same room, and I spent a lot of the day running up and down the stairs! A good way to keep fit, but not ideal workspace.

Luckily Malcolm decided to fix the problem by taking the furniture out of the smallest bedroom and kitting it out with desks, chairs and the computers from our office with our dual monitor set up. Thank goodness we could get back to normal! Our home office works well for both of us now, and it’s nice to be working together again. Luckily our clients all came through the lockdown too.

The challenge of moving our business was far smaller than the challenge parents of younger children faced having to home school. A lot of families didn’t have enough computer equipment for each of their children. This was a bigger problem for the less well off families, so some children just didn’t have the ability to connect with their teachers for a long time. We heard about this problem when a local charity started collecting donated tech for local children. They asked if we could help out as the donated laptops needed to be data cleansed and fixed before it could be passed on. Since then Malcolm has been kept busy upgrading and cleaning laptops and tablets to give to the children, and asking around to try to collect more unwanted tech. He was donating his time and spare parts, which made him happy, as he likes to make a difference.

When the children finally got back to school there was no more demand for this service, but refugees that had recently arrived in the country with very few belongings came to our attention. Again this was brilliantly coordinated by a local charity, and we were well placed to continue to help with donated computers and laptops. We’ve even managed to donate some clothing from some of our clients that knew we were trying to help out. One of our clients had a tech refresh, and were happy to get rid of their old laptops at no cost, and without them going into landfill. Everyone wins! No waste, and everyone that needs to be connected can be.

If you have a computer or laptop that you don’t want any more, please get in touch to donate it.