About 18 months ago I was approached by a school teacher who asked if Carnival UK had any laptops we were disposing of that they could re-use at his school. As an organisation, Carnival UK agreed this was a good thing to do, knowing that the laptops would benefit students with their learning. What we didn’t realise though was quite how much benefit they would bring, as access to technology became critical to students to support their home-learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When we first started conversations on donating our laptops, there was no such thing as lockdown, Furlough or hands, face, space. Today, there’s much more visibility of businesses supporting schools with their technology, but for us back then, it was uncharted territory and we had a few challenges to overcome.
I knew if we could get an agreement on how to fulfil this initial donation request, we’d be able to donate again.
Carnival UK takes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and environmental obligations – in this case Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) – extremely seriously, so we had to make sure that our donation didn’t compromise these principles. Ordinarily our waste electronic equipment is disposed of by a partner who guarantees the data destruction and compliant disposal of the remaining hardware. In handling this ourselves we needed to ensure we had a legal framework and a certified process to do so.
Reaching out to John Snyder, VP General Counsel CUK, for advice on how we could meet our waste obligations and protect the organisation on transfer of laptop ownership, he recommended Gustav Patrick, Senior Legal Counsel CUK, to support us in drawing up a reusable legal document. I was fortunate Gustav was as equally passionate about the project as I was.
Armed with the legal document and a certified method of data wiping, we were now in a position to make an official donation offer to Eggars School in Alton, for 25 laptops. The handover was completed on the steps of Carnival House – the main photo of this article pictures Rob Bowen, a teacher at Eggars School, collecting the laptops on behalf of his colleagues and pupils.
During a recent conversation with the school teacher who originally made the request, they told me:
During the pandemic, schools have loaned all their classroom laptops to pupils who have no direct access to technology at home. In most cases, only half are returned in working condition”.
When the process of donating laptops to schools began, little did we know that the Covid-19 pandemic would make our actions so vital in supporting schools and school children during this time. I’m really proud to be part of the team that made this possible – thanks go to Rob Mabey, Matt Owen, Scott Pelvin, Louise Mackinlay, Gustav Patrick, Mark Bratherton, amongst others, as well as Chris Lees who is supporting us in making this an ongoing initiative.
So what next? Well, Adrian Scott, Senior Service Delivery Manager; Scott Pelvin, EUC Manager; and I are getting together in our own time to discuss what the long term donation initiative looks like, and how we can support schools inside the Southampton City area.