Great success for the GreenWEEE and Ecotic campaign “Join the Circle of SolidarITy”, donating 132 IT equipment to 14 educational institutions, meant to help children attend online school.
While the pandemy forced educational institutions to find ways of organizing digital classes, this posed a great challenge for many poor communities of Romania: 32% of Romania’s pupils didn’t have acces to IT equipment for attenting the online classes. [1]
It was the driver of the campaign started in June 2020, on World Environment Day, by ECOTIC and GreenWEEE, with the help of APDETIC, Informal School of IT, NGO Ateliere fără Frontiere and media partner RFI. Companies were invited to donate old IT equipment, that were repaired and refurbished before being donated. At the same time, schools, NGOs and educations centers were encouraged to subscribe to receive donations.
Out of the 70 organisations that enrolled in the campaign to receive IT devices, a majority was from rural communities. This only proves that rural communities are facing the most challenges when it comes to keeping up with changes as a result of the pandemy and that increased support is needed to help them adjust to the new realities.
“We started this project to support the growing need for digitalization and to promote reusing as an important step towards circular economy. We are glad that, along with our partners, we managed to give support to schools from poor areas, helping teachers and pupils. For this, we will keep the campaign live, as companies wanting to donate still have the option to do so until the end of the year”, Valentin Negoita, Ecotic.
“We are glad that we found a way to support communities and we know that the devices offered are of real help for children to keep in touch with their teachers. As families struggle to stay healthy, we saw the need to offer our support to vulnerable young adults, so that they can continue their education during these difficult times”, added Mihaela Sofronea, PR&Marketing Manager GreenWEEE.
The list of beneficiaries:
Școala Gimnazială, sat Maxenu, Jud. Buzău
Școala Gimnazială n. 1, Ardeoani, jud. Bacău
Școală Gimnazială ,,Nae A. Ghica" Rucăr, jud. Argeș
Școala Gimnazială Dobrotești, jud. Dolj
Școala Gimnazială, sat Mologești, jud. Vâlcea
Grădinița PP Sf. Stelian, Moldova Nouă, jud. Caraș-Severin
Școala Gimnaziala Basarab I, Curtea de Argeș, Jud. Argeș
Biblioteca Comunală Rucăr, Jud. Argeș
Școala Gimnazială Pârjol, Jud. Bacău
Clubul Copiilor Lugoj, jud. Timiș
Liceul Teologic Ortodox "Cuvioasa Parascheva", Agapia, jud. Piatra-Neamț
Școala Gimnazială Călățele, jud. Cluj
Gradinița nr.3, Câlnău, jud. Călărași
Școala nr. 1, Stegănești, jud. Argeș
The campaign is still live and companies wanting to contribute with IT devices that will be refurbished and donated to schools from poor areas, can do so by subscribing here: https://www.ecotic.ro/formular-inscriere-intra-in-cercul-solidaritatii/.
