Limekilns man helping to support families with refurbished laptops

Mike Saint started the project after seeing a similar initiative in the news and wanted to help as many kids as possible from slipping through the net due to not having suitable equipment.

He said: “A lot of families may not have access to the relevant devices to do school work online. They may only have one tablet that has to be shared among four or five siblings.

"It can be hard because not everyone is in a position to go out and spend hundreds of £s on new devices, which then in turn can cause extra stress.

"I put a post on the local Facebook community group asking for donations of people’s old laptops and it snowballed from there.”

Mike refurbishes the laptops and turns them into Chromebooks, which uses open source software, that allows school children to access the Glow system to do their work on.

"As long as the laptops have a camera I can turn them into a Chromebook,” he said. “Laptops without cameras are still useful as I can use them for spare parts.

"So far I have given out about 50 laptops to families who are homeschooling.”

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Mike advocates the importance of a good education as he went back to university at the age of 51 to study psychology, gaining a masters in business psychology and a BSC in applied psychology.

"I went back into education later on in life, that’s why I’m so passionate about helping these kids as they have practically missed a whole year of school already.”

"If anything good comes out of the pandemic, it is the great community spirit that we have been seeing - people are thinking more locally now and helping people in their area.”

Mike has been in touch with Fife Council to offer support to families with his refurbished laptops, but due to licensing requirements and other regulations it is unable to distribute them to families.

However, it supports his project and has agreed to liaise with families to ensure that they can take advantage of offers of support.

Angela Logue, head of education and children's services said: "So far 4639 new devices and 1300 reconfigured school devices have now been distributed to children and young people to support remote learning.

"Connectivity solutions also continue to be provided where necessary to improve access to the internet.

“All offers of support with equipment are very welcome and we thank all those who are trying to help.

"Unfortunately we cannot directly accept donations of refurbished devices due to the licensing requirements, electrical testing and support required for the upkeep of these devices.

"However, we can route the offer through our schools to parents and carers who might want to take advantage of these offers, pass on details and families can get in touch with companies offering support directly."

For more information about Mike’s refurbished laptops, or if would like to receive one to help with homeschooling, please email: [email protected]

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