Fundacion Columbus School and Alcaldia de Envigado are collecting new or used laptops, PCs, and tablets until the end of the school year for students in need.

The devices collected are donated to students in need who applied for an Alcaldia de Envigado program to give education resources to those who can’t attend school physically. In most cases, this is due to medical conditions.  

“The world is changing, every day we become more technological, today kids don’t study with books, and it is really important that they have a device to study, especially for those who for some reason can’t attend classes physically,” Susana Velez, Foundation Intern, said.

There are two ways to donate the devices. The most common one is to go to the foundation office located in the middle school and leave your device there. You may also collect donations to buy a brand new device and donate it.

“It is important that the devices are PCs, laptops, and tablets, really any type of contribution helps us, this can be money, or even making campaigns around Envigado to raise awareness about this program,” Angela Botero, TCS Foundation Director, said.

So far, the foundation has gathered very few devices and if donations do not increase the foundation will be forced to end the program at the end of the year. Although the goal is not clear the idea is to minimum collect another 10 devices by the end of the year.

“We haven’t collected as much as devices yet, we have faith. Compared to last year, this program has built a lot of momentum, and each day we are receiving more contributions, not only from students but also people around Envigado,” Botero said.

The program only receives PCs, tablets, or laptops since a cell phone or iPod is not an adequate device to study on, since the program that the tech team is going to stall is only supported on tablets or computers.

“It would be great if you donate, not only to the foundation but those kids would be thrilled with any type of contribution, for us, the most important thing is knowing another kid around the city will finally be able to study,” Velez said.

According to Observatorio de Calidad Educativo. Since schools around Medellin started precencially, 8.241 children haven’t been able to return to school. Additionally, 105.000 students don’t count with proper devices to study.

“Every day the world evolves, we are living in a time that everything you need is on a device, our duty is to help those people who can’t transition yet,” Velez said.

The program is still too weak, more volunteers are slowly appearing to participate in this program such as David Murphy & La Mona’s class who had been promoting this program around the school & city for the past couple of months.

“I just love how with time more and more students are helping us, I think if things keep this way we can make kids around the county really happy,” Velez said.