Volunteer group helps low-income families to bridge the digital divide
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Jong Ching Yee
When president of SGBono Felicia Seah went to a one-room rental flat to deliver a desktop and a laptop to a family with six children, she realised that a desktop was not the right device for them.
As space was scarce in the flat, SGBono, a volunteer group which provides refurbished laptops and free laptop repairs to lower-income families, replaced the desktop with another laptop.
On the voluntary work that she has done, Ms Seah, 36, said: "The most fulfilling thing is to help bridge or fill some gaps in the digital divide.
"Technology is advancing and the ones who have access to it are just getting more and more advanced... But some children from low-income families are just getting started on their first laptop or their first Internet-enabled device."
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for digital devices increased as schools adopted home-based learning and Singaporeans worked remotely.
SGBono distributed around 600 devices to low-income families.
It organised a laptop repair workshop at the Digital for Life Festival, which was held at community and lifestyle hub Heartbeat@Bedok over the weekend.
Security supervisor Hassan Abdullah, 46, who has two primary school children, was there yesterday to get his two laptops from SGBono repaired.
He said that the refurbished laptops have been excellent as they allow his children to use video-conferencing platform Zoom and play games.
While waiting for their laptops to be repaired, his children attended a workshop held as part of the festival.
The nine-day festival, held from May 21 until today, and The Straits Times, in partnership with Singapore Pools, set up the Stop Scams exhibit to highlight scams and educate the public on the growing scourge.
• The nine-day festival is held from May 21 until today.
• The Straits Times, in partnership with Singapore Pools, set up the Stop Scams exhibit to highlight the number of scam variants and educate the public on the growing scourge.
Mr Ronnie Tan, 60, who visited ST's exhibit, said it has very good information about scams.
The clinical informatics manager's friend was almost scammed of $68,000 after revealing his one-time password, but managed to call the bank in time to stop the transaction.
Mr Tan said: "The exhibition has taught me to be vigilant and be alert."
