EIGHT All Hallows’ School students eagerly filed into a learning space before the first school bell to unbox and set-up donated smartphones, tablets and laptops for Queenslanders with disability on March 15.
One of the students preparing devices that day, social justice captain Ava Allen, said almost everyone she knew owned a smartphone.
“Phones are something we all have so it’s something I think we don’t realise how important they are for us to function in society,” she said.
Being able to prepare devices for people who did not have access to them was not just a practical way to help others but a rewarding experience too, she said.
Each device set-up by the students was part of an ongoing outreach project with Queenslanders with Disability Network, an organisation of about 2000 members led by people with disability.
QDN policy and strategic engagement director and All Hallows’ past pupil Michelle Moss said she was thrilled to be back on campus with the students that day.
“It was really those Mercy values I learned here at All Hallows’ that led me to working in disability for the last 30 years,” she said.
Ms Moss said QDN had wanted to run a digital inclusion project for some time and ended up connecting with GIVIT, an online charity connecting people in need with people who could donate household items.
As donated devices arrived, QDN looked for human resources to help package and prepare the devices for use – which was where her old school stepped in and offered the help of their Mercy Action Group, an outreach group who serve those in need in the wider community.
All Hallows’ School dean of mission Claire Easton said the group of eight students helping that day were only one of many groups in the school’s Mercy Action Group.
She said the digital inclusion project was one of the great ways the Mercy Action Group brought the school’s values into the community.
Ms Moss said the pandemic and the recent floods had shown how important it was to get everyone online, including people with disabilities.
“There are lots of people with disability who don’t have these wonderful devices,” she said.
She said people with disabilities needed to be able to get the facts on news or health alerts, access online essential goods and services like food and medicine and stay connected with family and friends.
For more information on QDN’s digital inclusion project, please visit qdn.org.au
