Technology is becoming an even more important asset in education due to lockdown forcing students to stay home. Students require access to electronic devices to attend their Zoom classes and to use online tools like Google Docs to complete their assignments. 

Elliot Amos, a student in year 5, noticed that access to technology was a problem when she watched the BBC News. She saw a family with six children who had to share one phone for their online classes. After watching that video, she was determined to help.

“I realized there are a lot of people around the world like that,” she said to The Voice, “and I wanted to change that.”

She took inspiration from Marcus Rashford, who ran a campaign to help provide school meals to students in need. Elliot started her own fundraiser, creating an activity pack to sell and put all the proceeds towards buying electronic devices to give to students in the community who were without them. 

The activity pack is 40 pages, filled with positive activities, stories from Elliot’s friends, inspiring quotes, a cross-word puzzle, and a word search. She set up a website and Instagram page with the help of her family and started a JustGiving page. Her goal was to raise enough money to purchase 24 laptops for school students in her community. 

“I wasn’t sure how successful it would be. I wasn’t sure if we were going to raise £100 in a month or that we would raise £10,000 in three days – and I raised £10,000 in three days,” she said. 

After raising the money, Elliot’s mom reached out to Oliver Goldsmith Primary School in Peckham. She donated 30 tablets to the school. The students were thrilled and sent Elliot thank you cards and photos of them using the tablets. 

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A post shared by Elliott Amos • 24 laptops (@24laptops)

Her mother also stated that Elliot is planning to give 55 tablets to a primary school near Old Kent Road.

Elliot claims that she will continue to help people once lockdown is over: “I feel so happy because I know I’ve made someone else’s life turn around because I’ve spent some time of my own doing something for someone else, and it’s such a wonderful feeling.”