31 july 2020
We are grateful. Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of Giel Hagelaar of the Municipality of Helmond, we have received the first large donation of laptop computers this week. We were able to collect 20 laptops in perfect condition.
And this wonderful donation has also come about thanks to our collaboration with the Chikara Cambodia foundation, where Giel Hagelaar is a board member. And while the world is still locked, we continue to prepare. This way we will be able to bring a decent amount of computers to Cambodia when the possibilities are back. We now receive weekly offers from individual donors. We can still use old laptops very well. In most cases, we convert them as a Chromebook. This has the advantage that students in Cambodia will soon be able to use all freely accessible software from Google. Very accessible and ... Available for free.
Of course it is important that the data on the laptop computers is properly and securely erased from the hard drives. Fortunately, we have a fruitful partnership with BLANCCO. With the help of their tools, all data is destroyed securely and certified and there is no risk of sensitive data being exposed. The Smiles of Hope Foundation is authorized to use this software, so we will issue certificates at a greatly reduced price, if requested, after erasing the hard drives.
The laptops are certified erased with BLANCCO software
The next challenge is to ship the computers to Cambodia. It is planned to do the first shipment in September or October this year. Unfortunately, there is currently only a lack of sufficient means to send the shipment. As a result of the Corona crisis, it is still quite a challenge to find sponsorship for this. However, we are not giving up and are urging our network to help us in this. With an amount of € 2000 we can ship the first 50 laptops and they can be used in our projects. Will you help us to reach this threshold?
The Smiles of Hope Foundation is a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) . Donations are therefore tax-deductible.
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Albert Schweitzerstraat 39
6836LA Arnhem | Netherlands
+31 26 845 33 30
info@smilesofhope.nl
KvK 77483642
RSIN 861021629