Cost of living crisis

Mia* is growing up with her sister in a single-parent household, her mum is on Centrelink payments including rent assistance and worries about her daughters being disadvantaged in the classroom and how that will affect their future.  Without a laptop of her own Mia was forced to borrow one from the school library – unfortunately, it couldn’t be taken home at night, impacting Mia’s ability to complete assessments and homework.

Stories like Mia’s come to our attention regularly so when we came across The Reconnect Project, we knew it was a charity we could work with to help vulnerable students struggling to keep up with technology in the classroom.

The Reconnect Project is working hard to close Australia’s digital divide by providing refurbished mobile devices including laptops and phones to people in need. When we put the call out for mobile phones and tablets of any vintage, and laptops that are less than 10 years old, we were able to collect quite a few devices to send to The Reconnect Project who then got them ready for students in need. This partnership, between CatholicCare Sydney and The Reconnect Project, is providing laptops for students who would otherwise go without, like Mia.

The Pastoral and Wellbeing Coordinator at her high school praised the partnership,

“Providing laptops to families in need enables the student to have a better chance of successfully accessing all aspects of the curriculum and to feel like they can achieve their personal best. The ways schools have been developing, it would be inequitable for a student to enter high school without access to a laptop.”

Mia can now engage with her teachers and peers and has the same level of resources as the other students. Her mother has seen a change in her daughter and says,

“Mia is now doing homework and is learning a lot in school. She is very thankful; the Reconnect Project has lifted her confidence.”

To help a child in need and keep them connected in the classroom please consider donating old devices – we can pass them on to The Reconnect Project and work together to get them into the hands of those who desperately need them.

For more information or to get involved, please email community@catholiccare.org

*name changed