For a number of years, our IT team has devised a creative way to repurpose our refurbished devices. For our annual Do Something Good (team member giving and volunteering) fall campaign they created a giving opportunity they named ‘Ctrl + Alt + Donate’ (a play-off Ctrl + Alt + Delete) that benefits United Way chapters in the states we have a Mortenson office.
Our team members donate a minimum of $100 to any United Way chapter in our online CSR platform and receive a refurbished company laptop. This is a fun, meaningful event for our team members that funds a long-valued community partner, through a process that safely repurposes devices, offering our team members a quality device for their families!
Another enjoyable and very meaningful way our IT team distributes these devices is by partnering with retired Mortenson team member, Jim, through his work and travels to Africa with HMCHA.
These refurbished devices are donated to schools in locations where it is the only place kids can touch a computer in a 20-square mile area, and where most have never seen one before. This has made a huge difference in training sponsored students as they make the transition from a rural ‘school’ to a main school.
This year’s deployment of refurbished devices will help supply two new school buildings the organization built, near the Community Center, which holds a total of 4 classrooms. First through fourth grades will attend in the morning; fifth through eighth in the afternoon; providing the children with a facility better than the typical one, shown here from previous visits to Ethiopia.
Photos featured show the new Community Center library and computer lab HMCHA recently built, housing laptops our IT team sent over with Jim.
During a short Summer Session, the kids asked if they could skip play time and work on the computers and their studies! We’re thrilled to have found an impactful way to give back to communities through our regular course of business.
Through the work in this community, sponsored children include:
- 116 students in grades 1 – 12
- 3 students in technical college
- 5 graduates of universities and technical colleges
An excerpt from a note from Jim, an example of where these donations go and the impact it has on the lives of these young students: ‘One of the computers Mortenson donated went to Gudisa, he is an HMCHA-sponsored student and was in the top three percent of all Ethiopians taking the college entrance exams. As such, he will get a free college education…but he needed to have his own computer. One of the organization’s board members traveling to Kenya gave it to Gudisa and he is all smiles!’
