Last year, Yettel donated HUF 50 million to the Digital Inclusion Fund, which allows individuals with special needs to apply for learning and communication devices, mainly laptops, tablets, smartphones and software.
Based on the feedback to date, the program serves an untapped need. It accepts applications from healthcare, social, child protection and child welfare institutions (hospitals, nursing homes for the elderly, temporary homes for families and children's homes) and from people in need (especially students, elderly people, large families, care-dependent people, children of single-parent families and clients of the social and child protection/welfare system). Applications are evaluated on a monthly basis and the fund is open until the annual budget is exhausted.
So far, applications have been received from several parts of the country, including Tolna, Veszprém and Zala counties, mostly from social institutions and child welfare services, as well as from temporary homes for families and associations caring for people with reduced mobility. More than half of the applicants (55%) applied for a laptop, around a third (33%) for a tablet and 10% for a mobile phone. The devices were distributed to the beneficiaries after formal evaluation.
Applicants include an eight-year-old bone marrow transplant patient from a village in Zala county who is missing out on school due to constant hospital treatment, so a laptop is essential for them to keep up with their classmates and not fall behind in their studies.
The Fund is continuously open and accepting donations. Based on figures to date, the average amount donated is between HUF 12,000 and HUF 13,000. To ensure sustainable funding, the founders, the Hungarian Red Cross and Yettel Hungary are looking for additional donors.
In the first year, the Fund will focus mainly and primarily on children and young people removed from their families, that is, children living in children’s homes and in temporary homes for families.
More information: https://voroskereszt.hu/digitalis-felzarkoztatasi-alap/