Close the Gap would not exist without the strong, supportive and dedicated commitment of its partners in industrialised, emerging and developing countries. Each partner contributes in their own way to help bridge the digital divide.
Our partnerships:
- Strategic partners not only donate computers but they also help the organisation on a day-to-day basis by providing equipment, financial or in-kind donations and/or e-resource contributions or through project adoptions. Strategic partners can also be organisations that provide training, support, software and expertise to the beneficiaries in the global South. They complement Close the Gap’s hardware donations with content, applications or specific know-how that adds value to the project.
- Friends of Close the Gap are companies or organisations that help Close the Gap by donating their decommissioned ICT equipment.
- Service partners work as intermediaries between Close the Gap and the beneficiary organisations. They know and understand the local problems and challenges and have local project management expertise. Service partners are an important aspect of quality assurance as they are responsible for preparing the local infrastructure by making sure that donated PCs have a secure location with all the necessary utilities like electricity, the Internet if available, etc. They are also responsible for the distribution and transport of PCs to the beneficiaries, installation and maintenance of ICT equipment, training project managers/teachers/users and finally, taking back the ICT equipment when it reaches its end-of-life.
