Large organisations urged to donate

Not-for-profit organisation WorkVentures has celebrated the delivery of its 20,000th low-cost computer.

WorkVentures, an organisation that specialises in refurbishing redundant workplace PCs, celebrated the delivery of its 20,000th PC to Sydney resident Mrs Jennifer Arnold last week.

The organisation provides refurbished PCs to disadvantaged people from $250 a pop and made it clear it can only continue to do so if PCs continue to be donated.

“Our challenge with a program like this is really balancing supply and demand,” said Arsenio Alegre, CEO of WorkVentures.

“Supply, at times, comes in drips and drops,” he said. “You’ll have one big supply in one period and then suddenly there isn’t as much.”

“Our role in managing it to make sure that there is an even flow so that we can work with organisations like Centrelink who have been very vital in promoting this program as well as housing New South Wales.”

Westpac have donated more than 14,000 PCs to WorkVentures since it kick-started the program in 2002.

It plans to deliver even more now that it has merged with other banks.

“We’ve just recommitted our support into the future…and now that we’re part of a larger group since we merged with St George and Bank SA in December, we’re looking at ways we can increase our support,” said Samantha Brown, Head of Community Engagement at the Westpac Group.

Brown added that the role of WorkVentures had helped Westpac find a solution for the disposal of old computers.

“One of the things we love most about this program is that it…solves a business problem for us,” she said. “We dispose of our PCs safely and securely and it ensures nothing goes to landfill,” she said.

“It also provides a really practical way for us to…make a positive contribution to employment and training of young people as well as looking at how we can improve the accessibility of technology to people.”

Other organisations recognised included Toll Priority and Microsoft.

Toll Priority delivers the computers at cost which Alegre said “enables them (purchasers) to make a significant saving in their acquisition of computers.”

Microsoft has also helped out by giving WorkVentures its software for free.

“The computers, when we refurbish them, they don’t (initially) work, there isn’t any software,” Alegre said.

“This is where Microsoft comes in with their On My Way program,” he said. “They provide the software for these computers for free.”

Alegre added that without “the collaboration amongst the various sectors” their project would not be possible.

Also at the celebration was Federal Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen, who said that WorkVentures had helped close the gap on “social inclusion”.

“We all think of poverty and we think of money,” he said. “Poverty is about much more than that, It’s about being restricted from full involvement in our wonderful society,” he said.

“To be fully engaged in our society you need to be computer literate and have access to a computer.”