BEARSKIN LAKE — A charity group has distributed 100 refurbished laptops to schools in three remote First Nation communities in Northern Ontario.
Corporations for Community Connections Inc (CFCC) donated the laptops to Fort Severn, Bearskin Lake and Muskrat Dam as a continuation of a 14-year relationship with Siemens Energy Canada.
These laptops hitched a ride with the Santa Run last Wednesday.
Philip Schaus, the president and CEO of CFCC, said that to remain competitive, high-tech companies driven by technology cannot continue to use the same laptops for over about three years.
He said their group intercepts these computers at the end of their corporate life, organizes workshops with the companies' employees to refurbish them and after giving them a new life, distributes them to people without access to the internet rather than sending them to landfills.
“The fact is that the world generates e-waste at a rate that equals the Great Wall of China every year and yet more than half the population of the world doesn’t have access to the internet, which in our digital world is really depriving them of the opportunity to get access to opportunities and fulfill their potential,” said Schaus.
These high-end and durable business computers typically retail around $1500 to $2000 a computer.
Schaus said the purpose of distributing these laptops is really to ‘reinforce education with access to this technology for students.’
Loretta Mickenack, the principal at Michikan Lake School in Bearskin Lake, received 30 laptops. She said the laptops will help ensure every student has their own laptop because they had a few late enrollments this year.
“When they go out for high school, they need to be aware of how to use the technology, especially when they go into grade 9 they start using the Chromebooks and using Google Classroom and stuff like that so that will help them to be ready,” said Mickenack.
Ardelle Kamenawatamin, a Band Councillor in Bearskin Lake, also thanked everyone for coming and the computers.
“It was a surprise. Like I don’t know anything about the computers, but the staff here in the school they sure can put good use to them because they’re so active with the kids in here,” said Kamenawatamin. “Like I see it. My kids have great teachers. I have four children in school here, so they’re doing well with their schooling here, so I love it.”
Unlike their typical workshops, held where the computers end their corporate life, Schaus said they initially brought some of these computers up to Thunder Bay for a workshop at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School to refurbish them.
Later in the week, he added that students from Oakville — where they often do their workshops — flew up on Friday also to learn how to fix the computers, diagnose problems with them and repair them.
“The reason for doing this is because we’re sending these computers to oftentimes very remote communities where they don’t have a lot of computer technology specialists and so what we want to do is we want to use this opportunity to train them on how to make these computers have a longer life, so that the computers get dispersed and continue providing service over a longer life,” said Schaus.
Cheryl Thomas is head counsellor in Fort Severn where the school received 28 refurbished laptops. She said there are many challenges with getting new computers in her community.
“It means a lot. I saw a lot of kids smiling. Totally made their day and having the laptops donated to us — I really appreciate it for the school,” said Thomas.
'It’s a great opportunity for them to use them as learning tools,' she added.
