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The group was welcomed by Ashton Wood, Founder and CEO of DV Safe Phones in their new offices at Mooloolaba.
Ashton advised there are about 2million victims of domestic violence each year in Australia and DV safe phones is helping to provide a safe means of contact for them with the use of donated and reconditioned mobile phones. This all started by Ashton about 5 years ago with assistance from Patrick King and King IT.   Since they started, they have received almost 30,000 phones from various donations. They currently have to throw away about just over one third of phones received and this has increased since the 3G network was disconnected a few weeks ago. So far, just under 11,000 domestic violence survivors have received a DV Safe Phone from them. They currently check, repair and distribute about 100 phones per week. These are not given directly to DV victims by them, but are provided to agencies that know the right people and ways to distribute to those in need.   There are 368 front line agencies and service providers helping to connect victims with a safe phone. There are 951 corporate partnerships and community organisations raising funds and providing phones for them. Some recent examples are ANZ bank, The Lott, and a couple of private philanthropists. They get no government funding.
The organisation is governed by a volunteer board and has around 6 part time volunteers, giving about 4 hours each per week, to help with checking, cleaning and charging the donated phones that are able to be used. They provide a prepaid sim card in each phone with a 2 month life after which the recipient has to renew the sim card at their cost. Ashton demonstrated for us a new laser machine he has acquired from China to delaminate the glass backing on the phone mother boards. This saves their team a huge amount of time. Ashton provided a great range of nibblies, cheese and biscuits and drinks for us which was greatly appreciated. All agreed it was a very worthwhile and educational visit, thank you Ashton. |
