DIGITAL DIVIDE & ME: VIKTOR’S STORY

Thanks to your donations to our Digital Divide fundraising campaign, Success4All donated a new laptop and connected Viktor’s* family to the internet.

Viktor*, his partner and their 10, 7 and 4-year-old children, arrived in the UK seeking a safer and freer future nearly ten months ago.

Having arrived in the warm summer months and just before the start of the new academic year, Vikor & his family found themselves spending most of their time exploring the outdoors and discovering new parts of the North East.

“We really do enjoy being outdoors because we find ourselves here free.

“As young parents, we are no longer in fear, even though sometimes we get flashbacks, but here, you are mostly free and the environment is welcoming so it gives you hope. It gives you a new sense of a new beginning.”

Since starting school, the children have grown to really enjoy school and find it great “fun.”

However, for the eldest daughter, it hasn’t been a straightforward journey.

When she first started school, she was struggling both academically and emotionally.

Viktor says, “School is different to where we came from because I realised the older one was having learning difficulties and was afraid of the teachers. Due to the circumstances, I think that has also affected her.”

With the school’s support, she is now getting the help she needs and is making progress.

However, with limited resources and no access to a digital device or the internet at home, Viktor believes his eldest is struggling to keep up with her peers. He explains, “She hardly could read English before but she’s reading it now, even though she is slow, it’s just that girls in school have got cell phones and have got access to laptops and she doesn’t.

“Even though you try your utmost best to keep them happy, there’s just something off because they go to school and if someone asked them something regarding technology, they wouldn’t engage.”

The pandemic forced an education revolution overnight, as many schools transitioned to online learning to ensure children continued their learning at home. This resulted in homework, revision materials, additional resources, emails and even forms being distributed to parents/guardians via personalised learning portals or emails.

Now that things have returned to normal, many schools have kept the same systems in place.

Whilst, printed copies of homework are still distributed to pupils, for students who need additional support and who were impacted by the pandemic, it is not enough.

For Viktor’s family, keeping up with technology has been a struggle.

“Schools here are technology-smart in most of their homework. There is some homework that I am not aware of and some work activities where they’ve got their own school login details and that way I don’t even know how to help.

“They also find it a bit hard sometimes. They could know some stuff in school but just because they do not have a computer they don’t.

“Back home technology is a luxury, here it is a need. It is like a basic need. You need to have access to it because without technology you’d hardly learn something new. You will be left behind.”

Viktor hopes that his children will be able to develop themselves at their own pace and that his wish is for them to express themselves in anything they want.

With a laptop and access to the internet, Viktor says it will definitely help his family.

*To protect the identity of the family, we have changed some identifying details.