Littleborough businesswoman urging community to donate digital equipment

Littleborough businesswoman Lisa Duffy is eager to make technology accessible to all children and families working from home

The owner of a recently opened Littleborough business is urging the community to donate digital equipment to help children as they continue to work from home.

Lisa Duffy, who opened Digihut based on Church Street, Littleborough in November, says she is 'getting requests from charities' that demonstrates the 'scale of the lack of provision for parents to home school their children'.

She said: “My business Digihut sells digital technology and with a background in teaching digital technology and working with social housing providers in local communities, I quickly began to realise that technology was not accessible to a lot of children and families.

“I I opened my shop in the centre of Littleborough in November 2020 and within the first week of opening, we were told we had to close due to the tier system.

“I knew we would have a lockdown and started to co-ordinate a laptop donation project using Facebook to seek donations. To date I have donated to Gorton, Britannia near Bacup, Failsworth and local to Littleborough. We are also getting requests from charities and it just demonstrates the scale of the lack of provision for parents to home school their children.

“Some parents don’t know what devices are compatible to use, and different schools using different apps makes it difficult when a parent has three siblings from different schools.”

Lisa, a single mum of four, has distributed over 200 devices to date to charities, schools and families who are travelling from all over the North West to collect items.

She continued: “I have sent letters and emails to local businesses to see if they can help as it’s become apparent that the government have not given out enough devices for children to learn at home.

“It would be really helpful if I can ask other business owners to help out with this initiative and donate unwanted devices so that I can continue to refurbish and distribute back into the community.

“I am inundated with families asking for help.”

To donate to Lisa’s cause and help children engage with their education from home, please contact Lisa on 07495 874 818 or via email omimobi@icloud.com to arrange collection.