Donating data to reduce the digital divide in Spain

Forgotten families

In Spain, 16.6% of households are unable to afford Internet access. This affects different family members in different ways. Sending an email or WhatsApp message, Google searches, job hunting or communicating with schoolmates or teachers are all online tasks that many take for granted. The inability to perform these simple actions can automatically result in exclusion from a society that has come to rely on technology.

Share the spare

Mobile operator Orange, working with charity SOS Children’s Villages and Red Cross Spain, has developed a brilliantly simple system to help narrow Spain’s digital divide. From November 2017, Orange customers were invited to share any unused data from their monthly bundle with those that need it the most. The initiative goes by the name #GigasSolidarios …where solidarity means gigabytes.

A year's free internet

Orange customers open their ‘My Orange’ app and with one simple tap their unused data is donated to vulnerable families with children under 18 who are still attending school. Priority is given to households in the most difficult social situations such as living with disability or victims of gender based violence. The recipient family is provided with free Internet for a year plus a tablet.

Data donations

To date 825 vulnerable families have been helped through the program with a goal of doubling that figure. Thanks to the generosity of Orange customers, the amount of donated data is increasing all the time.

“It has changed my life. Now, my children do homework that they won't have been able to do before. I receive the school emails in real time and I can communicate with the teachers. It has been very helpful for me, thank you."

Blanca Ortega, Granada, Spain