Children from underprivileged backgrounds in South East London can now break the technology barrier in the education system — thanks to the UK’s first laptop library at the CC Foundation’s headquarters in Lewisham.
The library scheme aims to accommodate 1,000 children to combat the growing concerns of technological poverty. With the COVID-19 pandemic still in action, schools have fluctuated between in-classroom and digital learning—with the rise in the latter, education has become increasingly more challenging for some kids. Studies show that, throughout the pandemic, as many as 1.8 million children were left without any internet access at all.
The initiative kicks off with the Lewisham branch but aims to expand nationwide in the future. Lewisham-raised rapper and CC Foundation creator Fekky spoke on the initiative by saying: “All children will have to do is log out of a laptop before being able to take it home and bring it back when agreed. Each comes with a wi-fi dongle so that no matter what the situation is at home, it can still be used to full effect.”
