Produced in collaboration with SBS Tamil
TRANSCRIPT
At a small workshop in Sydney’s west computers are being upcycled for donation to disadvantaged families.
It can be a life-changing gift - according to Tamil community volunteer Viji Dhayanathan
“In many families, if they have got two or three children, it is impossible for them to buy. I mean the parent just couldn't afford to buy three or four laptops if they had three or four kids.”
Ms Dhayanathan is collecting a restored laptop while at a workbench, technician Saif Al-Yousuf is working to upgrade a range of devices – many destined for the children of refugee and asylum seeker families.
“That's making me very happy to make sure that this one of these devices going an in-need child that doesn't have an access to a computer, that will help them in their education. We get the laptops and the computers donated to us. We clean them, upgrade them with new parts, and then we make sure that they working fine function perfectly. So that will make sure as well that the computers and the laptop will go away for another five, six years without them spending too much money.”
Recent studies have identified the importance of computer access outside of the classroom. Students without devices often struggle to finish class work. It’s a digital divide that Tamil refugee Sujan Selven is working to narrow, through his social enterprise Upcycled Tech.
“When they don't have access to a device and then they fall behind from the rest of the students and by us giving a device to them and then that create that connectivity and then they have access to do their homework, research, assignment, everything that's possible.”
Mr Selven’s volunteers upgrade unwanted technology at his small workshop in Sydney’s west. Devices are donated by small businesses or charities, upcycled and then gifted.
“At the moment we have around 20, 25 people that we work with families and organizations on an individual and organization level and then they then distribute to who those in need.”
It’s making a big difference in Australia, and also in Mr Selven’s homeland Sri Lanka where many students in remote areas struggle with limited internet access.
“They normally share one computer around with 30 students. We give around 15 computers per classroom and we have done covered three provinces so far - north, east and the south. And we also given more than a thousand devices in Sri Lanka.”
Mr Selven grew up with limited technology in one of Sri Lanka’s remote northern districts, and counts himself lucky to have made it through its gruelling civil war.
“During the time that it was about surviving. The air force will come and bomb a lot of the spaces. So as soon as we hear a air force or plane coming, we know that we have straightaway need to go into a bunker hide. And a lot of the time schools were targeted. A lot of my school friends that I was studying with, they're no longer alive, they were killed during the wartime.”
Those early experiences, and working closely with refugees after arriving in Australia as a teenager in the year 2000, drove Mr Selven to set up a project that gives back.
“I'm alive and I survived and I think I have a responsibility to do something. When I learned that there was a big shortage in terms of devices and access to devices, I think I thought I should focus on that and then solve that problem. So, I'm very proud of where we are now.”
But his Upcycled Tech venture is about more than supporting disadvantaged families. Keeping computers and other electronic devices known as ‘e-waste’ out of landfill is a focus for many organisations - including Planet Ark. CEO Rebecca Gilling explains.
“So, e-waste is essentially any electronic device, anything with a plug. E-waste is one of the fastest growing areas of waste globally, and Australia cuts well above its weight. According to the National waste Report of 2022, which is the most recent data we all have, Australia generated 531,000 tons of e-waste. Now that means that the average Australian produced in excess of 20 kilos of e-waste, and that's far in excess of the global average, which is around seven kilos per person per year.”
Australians buy nearly 5 million new computers annually, and almost half of the old, unwanted computers are sent to landfill. It’s a compelling reason to give used technology a second life, says Ms Gilling.
“In 2020 to 21, about 54% of the e-waste that we generated was sent for recycling, and of that about 35% of materials were recovered. So, the rest unfortunately went into landfill. That's a problem because we're losing very valuable materials like gold and other precious metals, but we're also putting potentially toxic materials into landfill. We really need to collect those items, keep them in circulation where possible.”
For Mr Selven who still works fulltime as operations manager at a civil electrical company, upcycling unwanted devices and shipping them to Sri Lanka is well worth the effort. And he has big plans to grow.
“We want to expand the number of devices that we receive and they help the number of people that benefit from our service. It's a lot of red tape at the moment is to take the devices into a country. But we are slowly discussing with the government to make things more smooth. My goal is to connect each school with a computer classroom and a connectivity. And I think we are progressing on that My ultimate goal is to have a computer and a connectivity for each household. That would be my ultimate goal.”
