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18/03/2023
Gadgets for Ukraine

The #LaptopsForUkraine campaign was launched on 1 December 2022. Its goal was to collect more than 50,000 gadgets to provide internet access to schools, hospitals, and government administrations in the war-torn regions of Ukraine.

The project helps to maintain communication between Europeans and Ukrainians in these difficult times.

More than 13,000 laptops, tablets, and smartphones have already been collected from private companies and ordinary Europeans.

New and used devices will soon be sent to Ukraine. They will be distributed among the central authorities that had filed an application or are in dire need of such devices. Some of the gadgets will go to educational and healthcare institutions damaged by Russian attacks.

As part of EGAP Program implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation with support from Switzerland, we helped to create laptopsforukraine.com, an English-language landing page for collecting equipment donations.

At the Masters of Digital conference in Brussels, the Ministry of Digital Transformation presented the ‘Peace Award’ to the DIGITALEUROPE Association for collecting devices for Ukrainians.

Throughout Europe, 16 hubs for collecting equipment for Ukrainians are currently operational. Such collection points have opened in Belgium, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Lithuania and other countries. And their number keeps growing.

‘Ukraine needs to restore its de-occupied areas affected by the Russian aggression. To restore the technical infrastructure, the European Commission, the DIGITALEUROPE Association and the Ministry of Digital Transformation initiated the Laptops for Ukraine project. Citizens of Ukraine, including college students, schoolchildren, doctors as well as civil servants, are in dire need of communications facilities and equipment to continue learning, working, and providing services to other Ukrainians. The project allows some of these needs to be met,’ says Valeriia Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration.

The report ‘THE DIGITAL FRONT LINE: 15 actions to boost Europe’s Digital Resilience’ on improvements to digital resilience in Europe was also presented at the conference and is available at http://bit.ly/3LhNha7.