The St Vincent de Paul Society NSW has launched a collaboration with One Foundation to provide laptops to people in need.
The launch on 29 January in Harris Park in western Sydney was timed just ahead of the 2026 school year and provided 55 laptops students and families to allow them to connect to the internet and digital world.
The computers, built by One Foundation, are refurbished school laptops that had reached their warranties but still had life left.
Joy Kyriacou, the Society’s executive director of membership, volunteers, and early intervention, said the number of people requesting support from the charity rose by 100,000 people or 20 per cent in the Cumberland area of Sydney in 2025.
“Partnerships like this are incredible for us, because what we see all the time is individuals and families with increasingly complicated needs, and we try to do everything we can to assist,” she said.
“These laptops from One Foundation help us to provide more wrap-around support to young people who are experiencing a crisis themselves or within their family and need some help with their education.”
One Foundation CEO Matthew Ciao said his organisation was providing laptops to vulnerable communities overseas but decided to turn its attention domestically.
“We thought there has to be people in Australia who need this,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
“We thought Vinnies is out there with their stores and the work that they do is incredibly visible, so we thought let’s try to reach out and see if they know anyone who might need these laptops.”
Ciao said the computers have been on an “ethical journey” as they have already been used by school students for their full warranty before being remodelled by One Foundation, which adds touch screens, tablet conversion, and provides technical support.
“These laptops are about to three to four years old and they’re being used in the vast majority by disadvantaged communities and schools across the country,” he said.
“They probably have another two or three years of life left in them, we refurbish them, they’ve been checked, they’ve been inspected to make sure that they last a long time.”
Vinnies Support Centre team leader Bhavika Patel said there was a “very positive response” from the recipients of the laptops.
“Education and other essentials are obviously very expensive nowadays, and with school time starting they were struggling to get the laptops for their kids,” he said.
