A Dorset charity providing young carers with support, friendship and opportunities has thanked a company for its “exceptional generosity” after it bought and donated 24 laptops.

Vissensa, a UK-based IT support and cloud services company, responded to a LinkedIn appeal from MYTIME Young Carers.

The charity highlighted the growing digital divide as young carers lacking access to a device at home struggled to keep up with their learning.

It came after MYTIME Young Carers was overwhelmed with requests for laptops after the government announced its latest lockdown.

Krista Sharp, CEO, pictured left, said: “Young carers already face significant challenges in terms of their education, performing on average nine grades lower than their peers at GCSE.

“With schools expected to provide between 20 and 25 hours of online learning per week throughout this lockdown, young carers without a device are falling further and further behind with every day that passes.

“The attainment gap between themselves and their peers is widening.

“During the first lockdown, MYTIME was able to provide over 20 laptops to young carers across Dorset.

“However, we have seen an extraordinary increase in the number of laptops needed among the community we serve.

“We are doing our very best to meet demand.”

Krista added that the government had committed to providing 1.3m laptops – and BT, Three UK and Vodafone were offering free data packages to disadvantaged students – but the laptops had not yet been delivered.

MYTIME Young Carers said its LinkedIn appeal had met with an overwhelming response,

In no time at all, its post had been shared far and wide with a large number of individuals and businesses offering help.

Vissensa, based at Minstead in Hampshire, responded immediately and, within 24 hours, had purchased 24 laptops on behalf of MYTIME Young Carers.

Steve Groom, CEO, pictured left, said: “As a supplier of IT equipment and services to businesses across the South Coast, we have been sourcing and configuring IT for over a decade.

“While deploying home working solutions for many of our clients during the first lockdown, it was really eye-opening to witness the lack of availability and subsequent escalating prices for equipment required for home working.

“Krista’s appeal for devices made us realise that this high demand for equipment wasn’t just affecting businesses, it was also impacting charities like MYTIME Young Carers who couldn’t source crucial equipment for young carers.

“Thankfully, we were in the position to utilise our extensive supply chain to find laptops that we could donate, so we did.

“I’m really pleased that all the pieces of the jigsaw came together so quickly.”

Sam Nunn, Chief Commercial Officer, pictured right, added: “All of us here at Vissensa are proud to be supporting a local charity which has been doing an outstanding job for the community since the pandemic began.

“It has been a difficult year for everyone, but the volunteers and staff at MYTIME Young Carers continue to instil faith that, by collectively coming together, we will get through this.

“We hope that the donation of laptops will help to ensure that young carers are able to continue their education during these difficult times.”

Matthew Barker, Chairman of MYTIME Young Carers’ Board of Trustees, said: “We are so grateful to Steve Groom and his team at Vissensa for their exceptional generosity.

“It is absolutely critical that young carers are able to access their education

“There are some fantastic online learning platforms out there, such as Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize and Greenshaw Learning Trust.

“However, young carers must be given the tools to access them.”

MYTIME Young Carers continue to actively seek laptops.

Anyone who can help is asked to get in touch.

• mytimecharity.co.uk