Eoghan Barr refurbishes the donated laptops before giving them to schoolchildren
Derryware Donations is a joint project by local IT Specialist and Teacher Eoghan Barr and the New2You Centre at Pennyburn Recycling Centre where devices are installed with the necessary software to be used for remote learning through Google Classroom and given to local families who need them during the current lock down restrictions.
Businesses and individuals can now bring their spare devices to the reception hatch at Strahans Road Recycling Centre in Strabane during business hours or to the Furniture Donation Point at the New 2 You Centre.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Brian Tierney, welcomed the expansion of the scheme which he hopes will help alleviate the pressures around home learning for some families.
“This innovative and timely scheme has been a great success in recent weeks in Derry and has allowed several local families to home school through Google Classroom,” he said.
“I am delighted that the initiative has now been expanded to the Strabane area which will increase the number of devices going to local homes in need.
“I would like to encourage everyone in Strabane to dig out any devices they no longer use and leave them to Council’s Strahans Road offices in the coming days.
“As we saw last Spring, home schooling puts enormous pressures on families and parents and it can be particularly difficult if a household does not have a suitable computer or tablet or siblings are sharing a device.
“A device you no longer use could be priceless to other local families, many of whom are unable to buy new hardware due to the financial pressures caused by the pandemic.”
Spare laptops and tablets wanted to help with home learning for children
They will be PAT tested by the team at New2You before Eoghan will clean the hard drive and add Neverware CloudReadyOS Home Edition software so they are ready to be used for Google Classroom.
Training sessions and resources will also be provided to families so they can use the systems with confidence.
Families and community organisations can register their request for a computer at: www.derrywaredonations.org where full details of the scheme are available.
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