Laptop Refurbishment Initiative
Coordinated multi-stakeholder laptop refurbishment program serving underprivileged families through corporate-nonprofit collaboration.
Project Overview
I am currently helping to coordinate a laptop refurbishment project between Eagles Interact Club, Mirxes, and SGbono. The aim is to refurbish donated laptops and distribute them to underprivileged families in Singapore through the Edusave Awards system.
The project started with an initial batch of 15 laptops and is working towards a target of 100 refurbished units across multiple sessions.
My Role
My role mainly involves coordinating the refurbishment sessions and making sure the process is organised enough for volunteers to follow. This includes working with student volunteers, Mirxes, SGbono, and community partners to plan each session, assign tasks, and improve the workflow after each round.
Some of the areas I have been involved in include:
- Coordinating between youth volunteers, corporate donors, technical volunteers, and community partners
- Organising the refurbishment workflow into stations such as cleaning, Windows setup, software installation, and final checks
- Improving the process after each session based on what worked and what caused delays
- Helping document the steps into SOPs so that future volunteers can follow the process more easily
- Planning for future sessions at a better-equipped venue to support a larger number of laptops and volunteers
Progress So Far
We have completed the first refurbishment session, where 15 laptops were prepared for distribution. The session also included a showcase event with Mirxes leadership, SGbono, volunteers, and community representatives.
There are currently 35 more laptops waiting to be processed, with Mirxes contributing about 10 additional laptops each month. As the number of laptops increases, we are improving the setup process, volunteer training, and quality checks to make the project easier to scale.
Current Work
Right now, I am focusing on improving the process based on issues we noticed during the first session. This includes making USB installers more consistent, standardising the cleaning process, improving the laptop checking procedure, and preparing volunteers for larger refurbishment sessions in the future.
Technologies used: Windows laptop setup, LibreOffice, Zoom installation, hardware diagnostics
Areas involved: Corporate social responsibility, non-profit partnerships, youth leadership, community outreach