The Yamaha Motor Australia IT department knows the important role technology plays in keeping people connected when they cannot physically meet. Educational applications and day-to-day convenience make a personal computer an important tool for any household.
The Yamaha Motor Australia IT department knows the important role technology plays in keeping people connected when they cannot physically meet. Educational applications and day-to-day convenience make a personal computer an important tool for any household.
With this in mind, the IT team recently jumped at the opportunity to turn the negatives of the global COVID pandemic into a positive for those less fortunate by donating a pallet-load of spare computers to local business, Computers For Young and Old. The excess units will be given a second lease on life as personal computers for individuals and communities that may otherwise have gone without.
Showing off the mountain of PC units, IT Admin Officer Matthew Kay-Spratley explained that when the COVID lockdown made working from home the new normal, staff were forced to lug their cumbersome desktop PC units and monitors between home and office. “The IT department needed to react quickly to the fast-changing landscape of 21st-century employment,” Matthew explained. “Transitioning staff to portable laptops and providing them with the means to move effortlessly between home and work offices, was the obvious solution.” However, the influx of laptops left the IT team with a surplus of perfectly good desktop PC units sitting around gathering dust, even after staff were given the opportunity to purchase them.
The surplus PC units may have ended up as landfill, but the IT team was keen to do something that aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of Yamaha Motor. Senior IT Service Desk Officer, Jonathan Rudder, contacted the team from Planet Ark hoping the units could be given a second lease on life. “After removing the hard drive and operating system from each unit, we called Planet Ark,” Jonathan explained. “The team was very enthusiastic about a donation of second-hand PC units, and they put us in touch with Bruno Pignone who owns a company called Computers For Young And Old. Bruno will make sure the units end up in the hands of people and communities that will benefit from them.”
Bruno Pignone from Computers For Young and Old said he receives daily requests for PC units from a wide range of people within the community, including case managers who work with victims of domestic violence, community groups that assist people with disabilities, men's sheds, refugees, indigenous communities, and even preschools.
“The wonderful donation from Yamaha Motor Australia will help us to supply the constant demand we have,” explained Bruno. “Before these units go to a new home, we will install a new hard drive in each, as well as a fresh operating system including Avast anti-virus. We will then match each machine to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers and provide all of the necessary cables. Our goal is to minimise the number of useful machines ending up at the local rubbish tip.
With this in mind, the IT team recently jumped at the opportunity to turn the negatives of the global COVID pandemic into a positive for those less fortunate by donating a pallet-load of spare computers to local business, Computers For Young and Old. The excess units will be given a second lease on life as personal computers for individuals and communities that may otherwise have gone without.
Showing off the mountain of PC units, IT Admin Officer Matthew Kay-Spratley explained that when the COVID lockdown made working from home the new normal, staff were forced to lug their cumbersome desktop PC units and monitors between home and office. “The IT department needed to react quickly to the fast-changing landscape of 21st-century employment,” Matthew explained. “Transitioning staff to portable laptops and providing them with the means to move effortlessly between home and work offices, was the obvious solution.” However, the influx of laptops left the IT team with a surplus of perfectly good desktop PC units sitting around gathering dust, even after staff were given the opportunity to purchase them.
The surplus PC units may have ended up as landfill, but the IT team was keen to do something that aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of Yamaha Motor. Senior IT Service Desk Officer, Jonathan Rudder, contacted the team from Planet Ark hoping the units could be given a second lease on life. “After removing the hard drive and operating system from each unit, we called Planet Ark,” Jonathan explained. “The team was very enthusiastic about a donation of second-hand PC units, and they put us in touch with Bruno Pignone who owns a company called Computers For Young And Old. Bruno will make sure the units end up in the hands of people and communities that will benefit from them.”
Bruno Pignone from Computers For Young and Old said he receives daily requests for PC units from a wide range of people within the community, including case managers who work with victims of domestic violence, community groups that assist people with disabilities, men's sheds, refugees, indigenous communities, and even preschools.
“The wonderful donation from Yamaha Motor Australia will help us to supply the constant demand we have,” explained Bruno. “Before these units go to a new home, we will install a new hard drive in each, as well as a fresh operating system including Avast anti-virus. We will then match each machine to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers and provide all of the necessary cables. Our goal is to minimise the number of useful machines ending up at the local rubbish tip.
Bruno also encouraged any businesses or individuals who have surplus computers lying around gathering dust to contact him via his web page at www.computersforyoungandold.com.au/ to discuss donating them for distribution to communities that may otherwise not have access to the technology.