Introducing the PCs for Refugees Project

Perth’s refugee community come from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. Employment is hard to come by and educational backgrounds are non-uniform, both of which are obstacles towards integrating into a new place and a new society.

Inspired by the success of the Connectivity for Refugees project in Melbourne, EWB Western Australia have partnered with the Adult Multicultural Education Service (AMES) in Perth to launch a similar project, called PCs for Refugees.

Our Objectives

PCs for Refugees aims to assist refugees as they participate and integrate into Australian society. We aim to do this by teaming a refugee student with a volunteer tutor who helps the student achieve their employment and education goals through learning to use a computer. Students are empowered to utilize the computer as a powerful communication and documentation tool, and discover the Internet as a vast resource of useful information and social connection.

What We Do

We believe that the provision of internet and training in computer skills will vastly enhance access to public services, job opportunities, educational and vocational training. Therefore, in our project we provide the following to refugees:

A refurbished PC
A printer
6 months internet access
A tutor to come to their home and provide weekly one-on-one lessons to give the recipient a basic set of computer skills including word processing, email and web searching
Ownership of the PC and printer, on completion of the training course

How you can get involved!

1) Tutoring
EWB are currently seeking 3 – 4 tutors, particularly female tutors. Tutors are required to give very basic education in use of a PC for basic word processing, use of email and the internet.

2) Technical Support
Volunteers are also sought to provide technical support. For this role you will need to be comptetant in rebuilding and repairing Windows based computers, both hardware and software. You will be involved in refurbishing PCs for the refugees and role also involves visting the refugee homes to solve hardware computer problems.

For more information about the project or to become a tutor please email Geoff Roy at ewb@cadplan.com.au or check out the PC's for refugees page

Links to More Resources

On this website we have tried to give you all the relevant information that is available about the PC's for Refugees program in WA, so if you wish to volunteer there is no need to look further. However, you may find the following links useful for interest/research:

Within EWB Website:

Connectivity Program Initiative Page: (Note this is National Initiative)
<http://www.ewb.org.au/explore/initiatives/connectivityprogram>
PC's for Refugees Initiative Page: (Note this is WA Initiative)
<http://www.ewb.org.au/explore/initiatives/connectivityprogram/pcswaprogram>

On the Great Internet:

Adult Multicultural Education Service Homepage:
<http://www.ames.net.au/>