Google donating $5.3 million worth of Chromebooks to refugees

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google has announced a new $5.3 million grant to help refugees in Germany by equipping nonprofit aid organizations with Chromebooks, VentureBeat reports.

Chromebooks are generally low-cost laptops that use apps running in the cloud, meaning they require Internet connectivity for most of their functions.

The grant, which comes from Google’s charitable Google.org arm, will support Project Reconnect, a program by NetHope, to “facilitate easier access to education for refugees,” according to Google director Jacquelline Fuller, in a blog post.

The news comes four months after Google pledged to match $5.5 million in donations to help with the refugee crisis that has been unfolding. A month later, Google announced a new open-source project called the Crisis Info Hub that helps refugees access key information, such as lodging, transportation, and more, on their journey to safer countries.

Millions of people have been fleeing countries across the Middle East and Africa in the past year, and Germany has been the most welcoming host country, with more than one million migrants registered in 2015 alone. And this is why Google and NetHope — an organization specializing in connecting nonprofits with technology — are focusing specifically on Germany with this latest initiative.

In terms of how the $5.3 million grant works, the nonprofits won’t see the money directly. Organizations can apply for up to 5,000 Chromebooks, and there are a total of 25,000 up for grabs. The specific Chromebooks are “managed,” meaning they can be administered and configured by a central team at the nonprofit organization and tailored to suit their specific needs. Preference will be given to “applications that demonstrate the impact that Chromebooks with Internet access will have in providing direct assistance to refugees, and facilitating access to critical programs and resources,” said NetHope.