At Americans Helping Americans® we know full well that the quality of a child’s education is dependent on having ready access to a computer with high-speed internet.

For several years, we have been working to bridge the digital divide for elementary school students in rural Kentucky by providing them with desktop or laptop computers at home and ensuring they have broadband internet service at a rate their families can afford.

Now, we are working to expand our educational technology distribution program by providing refurbished Chromebooks to our partners LAMP Ministries in Gainesville, Georgia, and Cumberland Mountain Outreach in Beattyville, Kentucky which operate afterschool programs.

By purchasing them through a nonprofit organization which takes in donated Chromebooks and refurbishes them, we are able buy them at a cost of just $53.

LAMP Ministries founder and executive director Mary Mauricio is hoping to receive 10 of these Chromebooks to be utilized in its afterschool program, as well as providing a few of the program participants with them to use at home.

Mary explained that LAMP had given away all its computers following the start of the coronavirus pandemic as students in the afterschool program needed them to be able to do their classwork at home when schools there went virtual. In addition, due to the COVID-19 requirements, the students could not attend the afterschool program located at its center during that time.

She is aware of a few of her afterschool students who even after all this time still do not have computers at home which remain critically needed for them to be able to keep up with their classmates and to use when schools close due to inclement weather or flu outbreaks as well.

Mary also noted that the Chromebooks at the LAMP community center will also benefit adults in the community who lack computers to enable them to study for their GED and other online uses.

This year, Americans Helping Americans® is hoping to provide nearly 100 computers and/or Chromebooks to students and afterschool programs in Kentucky and Georgia, which will also benefit their siblings and parents through our efforts – all made possible by our generous supporters – through our initiative to help bridge the digital divide in rural Appalachian communities.