Donate your old devices. Help a Home Learner!

Donate your old devices. Be counted and Make A Difference

Do you have old devices hidden under the bed, in the bottom of the cupboard or elsewhere kicking around that you do not need any longer? Do not throw it away (one this is dangerous W.E.E.E. waste and risks data breaches). We at Sivill Service are working with the BBC on this vital campaign to donate IT equipment to local schools to help school children that need these devices to join in with home learning.

Imagine you are on low income, have lost your job, have more than one child in the house and do not have enough devices to go around. How do you pick what child gets to do their schoolwork? This is a dilemma being faced by large numbers of parents across Lincolnshire.

Back at the end of the first Lockdown for Covid-19 we used some of the money we had aside to pay VAT (using the deferral ability) to purchase in from our suppliers several loads of laptops. We have brought in around 800 machines. We pledged to donate 50 of these to the campaign but knew we could do more. 

We process W.E.E.E. waste which is what these machines were purchased as. We made the offer to the BBC to help with data wiping, cleaning and processing the donations people make. They were so impressed with what we could offer they signed us up and put us on BBC Look North!

So here are a few basics on the how to donate to answer some of the FAQs:

Who can donate?

  • The long and short - anyone! The more devices the better :) The more machines we get the more we can help. Our 50 pledged machines will not go far. We are donating 10 devices to each school.
  • Companies - not an issue we can provide Data Destruction Certificates and any paperwork in relation to waste transfer - this is what we do! We are also registered waste carriers and can thus collect too. 

Covid Safety

  • Collections - We have a volunteer driver called Tom who will collect machines from doorsteps. He will be wearing gloves and a mask. He will ring your doorbell (or you can leave it bagged in a designated collection spot) and step away to allow you to place the devices in a bag on the doorstep. We will ask you to step away and he will pick the bag up. The machine will then be wiped over with isopropanol to sterilise it once we get it here.
  • Wanting to drop the device off? We have a number of drop off points that are all Covid Safe locations. This will help you to avoid travel. The list of drop offs will be at the bottom of the page. Please ensure that when you are dropping off that you wear a mask and practice Covid Safety.
  • Here at Sivill Service the shop is currently shut but we are on site working flat out. Please ring the doorbell and we will come to you. We ask that you do not enter the premises unless asked to do so to protect all involved. If the device is an Apple iPad we will need the pin code to reset. We will try and do this whilst you are with us. 

Data Safety

Data Satefy and protecting our customers rights to privacy is a massive deal for us. We have strict Data Protection, Safeguarding and device processing protocols. Your data is always safe with us. We have been in business now over 15 years and have a grade a reputation for ensuring that we abide by privacy, Data protection and any other relevant laws. Our team is only small here and very close knit with a very caring attitude. 

  • We will ask you if you have any data that you need off the device before it is donated - once it is gone there will be no getting it back so please think carefully! We will return hard drives if you want this back. 
  • All tablets are reset using the Android/iOS system. This is industry standard. These will wipe your data so once again ensure there is nothing you need!
  • Any PC towers and laptops will be data wiped using a program called KillDisk this is a professional data cleansing software that is registered to us. We will data wipe using a 3 pass standard. Machines with smaller drives will be done on a 7 pass as these take less time! This takes the drive back to 'as new'. We will never be able to reclaim data once this has been done - trust me we have tried!!!
  • We do not store any information about where the machines have come from. If you want your machine to go to a certain school please tell us and we will make a note of this. We will try and get it to the location you want if that school is on our list.
  • Please ensure that any SD cards, USB pen drives and personal possessions are removed from ALL devices, bags and card readers. These will be physically destroyed.
  • Any drive that does not pass Kill Disk will be physically destroyed. We are not willing to take the risk!
  • We can issue data destruction certificates to those that want them - please ensure details are left with the machine so we can issue this. 

What happens to devices?

All our donated devices go to local schools. Unlike many companies involved in the scheme we are a small local buisness trying to support our local community. No device will leave Lincolnshire! We will data wipe/fit new hard drives as needed and then physically clean, install with Windows 10 (we will provide genuine valid keys for this) or Linux based systems for older machines. All paperwork and records for our purposes are completed. The machines have seals applied to the bottom and they are boxed and taken to a number of local schools. Schools get these machines in the order that they have contacted us to register interest and no other preference is given. We are involved in every step of the process and we are the ones handling them every step of the way. Regular updates are on our social media. 

Schools include the following:

  • Tattershall Primary School
  • Mareham Le Fen Primary School
  • Barnes Wallis Academy 
  • Stickney Primary School
  • Holy Trinity Primary, Tattershall
  • New Leake Primary School
  • Banovallum Secondary School
  • Coningsby St Michaels Primary School
  • Leasingham Primary School
  • Ruskington Chestnuts School
  • Ruskington Winchelsea Primary
  • Billinghay Primary
  • Martin School
  • Bracebridge Infants
  • Gipsey Bridge School
  • Heckington Primary School
  • New York Primary School
  • Frithville Primary School
  • St Marys Swineshead

Several schools I am still waiting confirmation on so this list may yet grow! We have 19 schools so far.

Once at the schools they are being given to the children that are in need to be able to join in with the lessons. We are recording video at each location so check our social media pages. 

We have had offers for donations as far a field as Bridlington to distance really is not an issue. 

GoFundme

With the consent of the BBC to enable us to purchase parts and other items needed including machines we have set up a Gofundme page. This will not be used for any purpose other than in relation to the BBC Campaign but we have had those who have not been able to donate machines but instead have wanted to make a donation in monetary terms. We thank everyone who has made donations here to allow us to refurb these donations!

From all the team here at Sivill Service we thank everyone who has made any form of donation.

Drop Off points

We have a number of places that are acting as drop off points. These are buisnesses that are well known and we have known for long periods of time. 

Ink and Toner Direct - Ruskington

Moorlands Service Station (near Bainland) - Woodhall Spa

Sainsbury's Spalding 

The Windmill Shop - Heckington