Do not underestimate, for one moment, the impact Covid-19 has had on our children.
A generation kept away from their friends, detached from their teachers, wracked by confusion over exams, and uncertainty over their futures.
In a society we dare to call ‘civilised’, some though, have it far worse than others.
Children from disadvantaged homes become a political football in a simple request for enough food to eat when a free school dinner is no longer on the table.
Children from less-well-off households are hungry for information too. Hungry to learn, hungry to study, hungry to pass the exams that will allow them hope and ambition and a better life in adulthood.
But as the gates clang shut on their schools, they also shut down the supply of knowledge. If mum and dad can’t afford laptops and the internet, then the kids can’t afford hope and ambition.
As ever, the poor get that extra kick in the teeth. And as ever, in the North, they get kicked that bit harder.
We applaud and support the brilliant efforts of the many who have rallied round the various and vital campaigns to get laptops to the kids who need them.
But laptops without internet is like Marcus Rashford persuading the Government to feed kids then finding that all those kids got was a knife, a fork, and a dish with nothing to put in it.
These kids need the internet. In it lies connectivity to infinite possibilities. Everything is there to explore and experience.
Today we launch a campaign to buy the inexpensive ‘dongles’ that will, with those laptops, bring reliable internet to every child. With your help we can connect every child to information, to hope, to ambition and, ultimately, to success.
At ChronicleLive our job is to fight for, and connect, communities. We cannot stand by and watch a community of children denied that connection.
Join our Cash for Connectivity campaign and change young lives forever.
To donate to Cash for Connectivity, please visit www.gofundme.com/f/chronicle-cash-4-connectivity.
