The charity collects and repurposes used devices and gifts them to people in the Asia Pacific region who have limited or no access to digital technology due to financial, social or geographic barriers.
LiteHaus International Founder & CEO Jack Growden said many of Hall’s donated devices had been directed to schools in the Solomon Islands.
“Solomon Islands – like many other nations in the Pacific Islands – is facing a significant digital divide which hinders economic development, limits access to education and healthcare, and weakens the country's ability to compete in the global digital economy,” Jack said.
“Addressing this divide is crucial to promoting social and economic inclusion and developing the country’s future leaders, so we were excited to install digital learning labs at Honiara High School and King George VI High School recently.
“Each digital learning lab contains 40 devices, and we have plans to roll out additional labs across Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands nations in October.”
Jack said despite Australia being a highly developed nation, it also lacked crucial digital infrastructure in some areas of the country.
“Hundreds of thousands of students across rural, regional and remote areas of the country do not own a personal laptop, so our Digital Inclusion Program aims to tackle the digital divide by providing high school students in these areas with a device for free,” he said.
“We also build digital capability amongst regional communities through establishing communal digital hubs and enabling digital literacy training.”
Hall Contracting CEO & Director Cameron Hall said he was thrilled to get behind such a worthy cause, which posed both social and environmental benefits.
“More than 500,000 computers are disposed of in Australia every year, so this initiative is a fantastic way to divert e-waste away from landfill and provide digital learning opportunities to disadvantaged students.
“With Hall currently working in the remote island nation of Tuvalu, we are also eager to collaborate with LiteHaus International to distribute digital devices to Tuvaluan schools.”
Hall has committed to donating its retired laptop and tablet fleet to LiteHaus International on an ongoing basis, helping the organisation to achieve its goal of providing digital learning tools and opportunities to one million people by 2027.
