On Thursday, October 22nd nine Symantec employees volunteered at the local Dublin charity, Camara, as part of Symantec’s Take Five initiative. The Take Five initiative’s purpose is to encourage each Symantec employee to volunteer at least five hours in FY16. Camara is an international charity and social enterprise that uses technology to deliver skills and education to disadvantaged communities around the world. In Bantu, a dialect of West Africa, Camara means ‘teacher’ or ‘one who teaches with experience,’ a name fitting for this purpose-driven organization. Camara collects redundant computers from organizations for refurbishment and reuse, reloads them with educational software, and ships the refurbished computers in bulk to Education Hubs throughout Ireland and Africa. These computers are typically installed at eLearning Centres in schools and community centres to provide educational tools to some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. Since 2005, they have supported 250 organizations and delivered digital literacy to over one million students!
On the volunteer day, the Symantec employees had the opportunity to visit the Camara office and warehouse based in Chapelizod in Dublin, Ireland. The volunteers helped the organization by preparing large volumes of redundant computers for reuse by cleaning the computers before they are installed with educational resources. “It was a good day. I came back to the office with a smile on my face! I guess it’s true, charity work is good for the soul,” said Jules O’Sullivan, one of the Symantec volunteers. Each of the volunteers logged their hours in Symantec’s Dollars for Doers Program. Those logged volunteer hours means that Camara will receive a donation of $675!
Symantec will continue to build a partnership with Camara. Their mission aligns with Symantec’s philanthropic goals in many ways: engaging employees with relevant volunteer activities within the local community, reducing Symantec’s environmental footprint through computer donations, and supporting digital literacy for global communities in need. In the near future, Symantec plans to donate computers to Camara for reuse. There will also be more volunteer days to the warehouse!
As part of our growing partnership with Camara, we were invited to attend the Tech Fest event hosted by Camara in Dublin. Amanda Davies and I attended as guests of the event to gather insight on future opportunities for delivering our Online Safety in the Community program. Tech Fest is a wonderful event for young people in Ireland where they gather to present their work that they created in the TechSpace program as well as take part in special workshops, hear from inspirational speakers, and get inspired in STEM. TechSpace is a national movement that changes the lives of disadvantaged young people in Ireland by building the capacity of youth organizations to run creative technology and STEM education programs. Through these programs young people build vital skills for successful futures. For Symantec, and our commitment to STEM education and promoting online safety in the community, it was an inspirational event that introduced us to many new insights and opportunities.
Elaine Curley is Symantec's Senior Quality Assurance Specialist