Help this unique service project go “viral”

Imagine you are alone in a hospital, in quarantine, and you can’t even connect with family and friends because you don’t have a smart phone…

At virus hotspots across the country, countless patients - especially elderly and low-income - are suffering in social isolation without a smart device to stay connected to their families and communities. Sunny Sandhu (class of 2020) has come up with a wonderful service project, "Connect for COVID-19", and he has enlisted his classmates and alumni to help him.

“Connect for COVID-19” (www.connectforcovid19.com)  collects donations of smart devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, spare chargers, unused earbuds) from individuals and organizations. These donations give digital access for vulnerable populations (seniors, low-income, etc.) helping tackle the social isolation of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and other care facilities. These donations also enable remote access for medical staff on the frontlines. These intrepid, masked students work with hospitals and nursing homes across the country to ensure donated devices go to the people that need it most as they fight COVID-19.

It's so easy -  fill out a form, take a photo of your devices and chargers, and then volunteers come to your house to pick up the devices. Yeah, in the Princeton area they make it ridiculously easy. They make it contact free too.

For outside the Princeton area, if you submit the donation form online, they will provide donation mailing instructions.

“Connect for COVID-19” needs phones no older than iPhone 6. Any phone that can handle Facebook and WhatsApp and text messaging. They need iPads and laptops. They need power cords, chargers, unused earbuds. They need money to buy chargers because most people don’t donate those. The device can't have any cracks and must still be working for the donation to be effective.

Security of data? There are instructions on line on how to wipe your device of data, and then the students have tech volunteers who continue to wipe out your data if you missed something.

“Connect for COVID-19” is in contact with hospitals all over New Jersey. The nurses help the seniors learn how to use the phones if that is a problem. The devices break the social isolation that many older folks and all COVID-19 patients are experiencing. This way the donation recipient can see family and friends at time where this matters more than ever.

Three ways to help:

Donate devices and power cords and chargers -
https://www.dhcproject.org/donate-device

Spread the Word -
Share this website with your social networks, friends and family
https://www.connectforcovid19.com/

Donate money through the GoFundMe campaign -
https://www.gofundme.com/f/connect-for-covid19

For more details, and coordinating corporate donations, please reach out to Sunny himself:
ssandhu@princeton.edu.