Chris Hunnisett

I taught myself how to refurbish computers, I started off with Microsoft XP, taking them apart and putting them back together again, making them work etc. I did it for friends and friends of friends, this was about ten to 12 years ago.

We were constituted in July of 2020, and it’s just spiralled from there, we send computers out to Somerset, Nottingham, and Kent. When someone wants to donate a computer that they don’t need anymore, it comes here, we wipe it using a piece of software called KillDisk or Scrub, we then install Linux on the free machines and Windows on the ones we sell. We sell because we must have some money coming in, we don’t like selling but until we start getting bigger donations in, we must.

People have been stuck at home self-isolating, they can’t do homework, they can’t work, and we want to bridge that digital divide. People that are vulnerable can’t get online if they don’t have a computer, therefore they can’t do their work and they can’t look for work or access training. If they’re off sick they can’t make doctor’s appointments – they can’t live.

We’re on the ASDA green token scheme, which we won by a majority percentage, that brings in a little bit of money, but it’s more about raising awareness. We get referrals from the Department of Work and Pensions who are the sort of people we are aiming at because of their low income, we’ve also allowed people to come to our premises to use our computers for online training courses to access their exams. We support anyone who is on a low income or disabled as well as Children’s Services. We’ve currently got 90 people waiting for laptops but we’re hoping that the Morrison’s Eastbourne laptop drive promotion, which starts Tuesday 1st February to Sunday 6th February will help us.

** Collecting, Laptops, Phones, and Computers to help break the digital divide **

Helping to break the digital divide, by working alongside Tubbs computers, Morrison’s will take old, unwanted laptops etc and clean them and then redistribute to people that need them.

Please bring them to the kiosk in Morrisons in either Eastbourne, Seaford, Crowborough, and Hastings between February 1st and 6th

If everyone in Eastbourne gave us a pound, we’d be sorted!
They can donate via our website >> https://tubbscomputersupplies.org/1_2_donate.html we want to support the community and help put Eastbourne on the map, also aiming to help kids that are not in education or training (NEET) Kids that have had a hard start in life who we can take on board and show them that we do care and we do want them to be to be part of our society.

On the back of the Morrison’s promotion, I want to get a shop/unit in Hastings, Crowborough, and Seaford for drop off or collection, making it easier and more accessible for people to drop off their unwanted computers, we can then collect them and process the orders.

When you want to donate your un-needed computer to the tip or even your household waste it’s not secure, you no longer have a say in what happens to the data, they may wipe the hard drives, but they may not. We do and can offer a certificate to back that up. We’ve worked with politicians and solicitors who have very sensitive data, and they trust us to get rid of it, ready for the next person to use it.

We are currently working with Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell, CityFibre https://cityfibre.com/ and Lanes Group Plc https://www.lanesgroup.com/

There are 1000s of people all over the country that need our help so we want to take our approach to more areas so we can help people nationwide.”