By: Queenie Resmundo
With the aim of helping students for the expected online schooling this year, two concerned citizens launched a laptop donation drive on Facebook which went viral recently.
The initiative went viral when Icon De Jesus, a teacher at Asia Pacific College, School of Multimedia and Arts posted on his Facebook account and told netizens that if they have old laptops that still boot up but need refurbishment and are no longer being used, they can donate it instead. They will do the fixing and give it free to students who need laptops to continue their education this year but do not have the means to acquire one.
Icon de Jesus’ Facebook post.
According to De Jesus, this initiative started when his friend Andy Umali, a bass player, called him one morning about it and asked if it was a good, feasible idea, which De Jesus think is a great project.
“The idea started when Andy tried to revive an old laptop he had since it was still working but was very slow, so it was very frustrating to use. He searched on the internet and found Cloudready by Neverware, which was an operating system that mimics Google’s Chromium OS. After installing Cloudready, the laptop was running faster and could run basic applications like a browser and Skype and Zoom,” De Jesus shared.
This inspired them to ask for old laptops that are very slow and useless to their owners, while they do minor repairs and the installing of Cloudready on them so it can be efficient for beneficiaries.
So far, they have received 30 donated laptops and 72 more individuals have said to send them their devices as well. However, De Jesus said that not all donated gadgets were still functional—some had different issues, had hardware problems, others were just too old.
“That’s why we would like to emphasize to those who want to donate to please donate laptops that still boot up and with power cord included,” he said.
Initially, donated laptops will be pledged to Victorious Homeschool which will select who among their students are really in need and are deserving. But since the post went viral and they have been getting a lot of requests, De Jesus and Umali decided to distribute it as well to other students in need.
De Jesus said they have yet to distribute the repaired laptops as they are still collecting and doing minor repairs, but they are targeting to give it as soon as they identify the students who would need laptops the most.
If you would like to donate your old laptop, contact Icon De Jesus at 09175154712 or Andy Umali at 09224440889.