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31.12.2022 ·  Thomas Moerdinger  ·  Share on Facebook  ·  Share on X (Twitter)

2022: PCs FOR ALL between war, apprenticeship support and Science Busters

Nobody could have predicted that 2022 would turn out the way it did. While the first year and a half of PCs FOR ALL's existence was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine changed a lot for us, too.

Suddenly there was war. PCs FOR ALL helps.

Suddenly, refugees from Ukraine, who had been displaced by the war to Austria, needed help. From the very beginning, the fantastic organization Train of Hope welcomed many of the new arrivals to the Austria Center in Vienna and provided them with the essentials. In this exceptional situation, it quickly became clear that more support was needed than a few laptops and printers (which we naturally provided). So we branched out of our usual channels and collected donations of money and goods beyond IT. We focused on the many women who had fled with their babies. Thanks to the wonderful people who read and shared our appeals on social media and donated themselves, a huge amount was raised. We were able to bring vans full of food, bottles, and hygiene products for babies, as well as Austrian mobile SIM cards for the mothers, to the sports hall, where Train of Hope coordinated the distribution.

Refugees from Ukraine have since become part of our daily business. With Tymur, a very young Ukrainian computer whiz who has been supporting us in our workshop after school for months, we have gained another valuable team member who can also interpret for us. More than 1.000 people from Ukraine have already taken advantage of our services and received computers from us. We want to make it easier for them to stay in touch with their homeland and, above all, help the many Ukrainian children in Austria. With the computers, they can participate in Ukrainian online classes and take exams at Ukrainian schools. We have also provided computers to 40 Ukrainian orphans in Upper Austria, as can be seen in this article. ORF television report can check.

Most recently, together with the Ukrainian Embassy, we assembled a shipment of computers, network hardware, and printers to re-equip the administration of Kharkiv, which had been under Russian siege for months. A second shipment will soon supply computers to Ukrainian schools.

Help for families, schools and non-profit organizations

But of course, we also keep an eye on others who need our support. And due to the sharp rise in prices, this number has increased. In the meantime, we have been able to provide more than 16.000 families with used computers, serviced by us and fully functional. The Adolf Lorenz School for children with multiple disabilities in Vienna received several projectors for classroom use from us. We also collected money from our always generous followers for the school's parents' association to cover transportation costs for excursions and therapy sessions for the children. Of course, we also supported other non-profit organizations in 2022 so that they can work with our computers: this year, these included the language support association Startklar in Wiener Neustadt, the women's counseling center Lilith in Krems, and the Red Cross training center.

Internships and digital apprenticeships: better opportunities for professional life

One of our goals is to help people gain a foothold in professional life. Last year, five interns were able to gain experience in our workshop, which hopefully paved the way for them to a paid position. And as a special highlight, our apprenticeship support project was launched. Digi-teaching, which we are implementing with the support of the Chamber of Labor. Through Digilehre, in cooperation with works councils, we equip apprentices with computer workstations who do not have their own in the company. 

Digitalization is also playing a major role in an increasing number of apprenticeships. With their own computers, apprentices can better practice and consolidate what they have learned. The goal is to reduce the dropout rate among apprentices.

Our followers, companies, and the Science Busters help us help!

All of our activities are primarily made possible by the device donations we receive. Many companies, clubs, and even more private individuals have donated their unwanted computers, monitors, cell phones, etc., thus helping us to help. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our donors; without their tremendous support, none of this would be possible! We'd also like to give a special shout-out to two repeat donors. Mobile operator Drei and Austrian Lotteries have already donated more than 2.000 devices in several installments!

We were especially pleased about the recognition we received last year. After all, everyone at PCs FÜR ALLE works voluntarily in their free time. Every thank you and every compliment is especially helpful! And when the Science Busters donate more than 6.000 euros or if we Audience Award of the Places of Respect 2022 win, the joy is of course particularly great.

PCs FOR EVERYONE now also repaired for everyone.

We launched a repair service in 2022. We often receive broken computers that can be made to work again simply by replacing parts. It's great for us and the future new owners, but a shame for the donors, who have to spend a lot of money to buy a new device. For some, this poses considerable problems. For us, these cases create a bit of a "hole open, hole closed" feeling. While we can help someone with a device, this may come at the expense of people who can't easily afford it.

That's why we came up with the idea of offering an alternative. Anyone interested can have us take a look at their defective device. If it can be repaired simply by replacing parts, we can offer that for a small fee. And the best part: The Ministry of the Environment pays a large portion of this through a repair bonus. Of course, 100 percent of the proceeds go back to the association! Here you can find more information about the PCs FOR ALL repair service.

Also for the sake of the environment: PCs for ALL avoids electronic waste

The added value of our work for the environment has also not gone unnoticed. We received almost €2022 from the European Recycling Platform in 5.000, as an estimated 200 tons of old devices were reused over the past two years instead of ending up in the landfill.

We also handle many defective screens, broken batteries and hard drives, as well as computers and accessories that are too old to be properly repaired and reused. Instead of throwing this electronic waste away, we hand it over to a recycling company that recovers as many of the raw materials as possible – especially the metals: One ton of computer scrap contains no less than 70 kilograms of copper, 140 grams of silver, and 30 grams of gold, as well as many other metals such as lead, zinc, nickel, aluminum, platinum, cobalt, and, of course, a great deal of iron. The concentration of metals in electronic waste is therefore higher than in any mine in the world. Recycling puts these metals back into the product cycle. This saves vast amounts of energy and prevents the diverse environmental damage caused by mining, particularly in countries in the global South.

At this point, all that remains for me to do is to say thank you again on behalf of everyone at PCs FÜR ALLE.