IT Relief and KIDS: what you can do to help

NEWS JON BERNSTEIN - Every two years, the IT industry - in the guise of IT Relief - puts its money where its mouth is and backs a worthy cause. This year's cause is KIDS - a charity designed to help children who have all types of disabilities. To find out more about KIDS and what you and the rest of the IT industry can do to help, I am joined by Angela Woodley, director of KIDS London, and by Clare Williamson, marketing manager at Logical, and the woman coordinating this year's IT Relief. Angela, tell me about KIDS. ANGELA WOODLEY - KIDS is an organisational charity, which works with disabled children and their families, to help and support the family with their child's disability. JB - And how can information technology play a part in this? AW - Many of the children are quite severely disabled, they either have severe learning disabilities or have a physical disability. And so IT Relief can help in providing computers and equipment, so that those children can use the current information technology, bearing in mind that a lot of the families we work with are on low incomes, and cannot afford the equipment themselves. JB - Clare, you are coordinating this year's IT Relief. Why did you chose KIDS? CLARE WILLIAMSON - Initially, IT Relief was started in 1996 and we supported Comic Relief. In that first year, we raised £100,000 for Comic Relief. We felt very strongly this year that we would like to support a charity where we could make a visible difference and see the difference. And also one that was UK-based. And KIDS was chosen. JB - And in terms of making that difference, is it a case of just providing some free PCs, putting them into the kids' homes, and walking away? CW - No, it's not. Whatever we do, it has to be ongoing, there has to be support, maintenance, development. There are two elements one is linking up the KIDS centres around the country. The second is putting in terminals into the homes of children who are disabled, so that they and the parents can access onlines, chat lines, information sites, and things like that. JB - Angela, is this already underway? Do some of the kids already have PCs in their homes? AW - Very, very few of them, only if their parents have been able to afford them. Bear in mind that a lot of the equipment that they need isn't just a basic computer, it will be touch screens, and voice activated computer equipment. So very few of the children who we are working with at the moment have this equipment. JB - Clare, what can the IT industry do in that case? CW - Help us! JB - And how can they help? CW - We are desperate for help. Free Computers for Schools have very, very kindly offered us as many PCs as we want, but bearing in mind that most of these are 486s and would need upgrading. We have got 17 in at the moment, in our labs in Slough, which we are going to upgrade so we can get the first centre in London going. And we need sound cards, we need speakers, we need CD drives. JB - what won't a 486 do? CW - It has a very basic memory. These do not have sound cards, they have NIC cards, the ones we have got in, surprisingly. But typically, a lot of the children have hearing disabilities, and sound is very important to children anyway, but we will also need things like servers, cable infrastructure, some hubs for the centres, and also free Internet access for the families, who are accessing from home. Because as Angela said, a lot of the families are on very low incomes, a high phone bill is not something which they can necessarily cope with. AW - Yes, that's absolutely right. The big problem for many of these families is that the fact of having a disabled child means that there will be all sorts of other financial implications for the family. A high phone bill, and indeed, purchasing computer equipment, is not high on their priority list. JB - Can you give me an example of a kid who actually has a PC in their home, thanks to KIDS? AW - Yes, I can. I can think of one young lad of eight, who has severe autism. And his parents along with a KIDS worker, have fund raised small bits of money from a number of charities, to provide a computer in his home, because it is the one thing that he responds to. And using the computer has at least given him an interest in life, when before he was very distant and didn't particularly have anything that he focused on. JB - And what does it let him do: is it access to the Internet? Is that what it's all about? AW - He doesn't use it for access to the Internet, but a lot of the games are very colourful, they have sound, and that keeps his attention. JB - Clare, let's talk nitty-gritty. What are you expecting, do you want IT vendors to donate hardware and software, or are you after cash? CW - There are two elements. We have the IT Relief Ball which will be taking place on 8 October at the Park Lane Hilton. We're just getting that off the ground now. We would like support from people doing activities to fund raise within their companies. We've had things in the past bad taste tie days, charity football matches, people climbing mountains, I seem to remember. And things like that, just anything which is fun that can raise money. We did something last week within Logical, where we managed to raise just under £300, and it was just a fun activity. But we need people to raise money, we also need people to help by maybe some of the distributors, if they can, donating NIC cards, donating sound cards, CD drives. And maybe some of the distributors helping us in the installations that we will have, around the country later on. JB - Because I think one of the keys to all this is not just providing the kit, it's actually having all the installations, having the integration and providing the service CW - Yes it is. And the other thing is going into the homes as we install the kid's terminal and showing the family how to use it: 'how do you access the Internet? How do you load a CD drive? What's safe, what isn't? What do you worry about, what do you ignore?' It's those kinds of elements. And I've got a lot of our guys to promise to help out, so I shall certainly keep them to it. JB - OK, if other people want to help out, they want to find out more information, where do they go? CW - Please contact us. We have an email address, and we will have a Web site going live soon. And if they can contact us at helpkids@itrelief.org , then we can get any information to them, and advise on how they can help. JB - Angela and Clare, thank you very much. (Transcript by Poppy Whitfield)