Telenet donates laptops to P.R. public school students through Liberty Foundation
Telenet, a Liberty Global affiliate and a provider of entertainment and telecommunication services in Belgium, has donated 50 laptops to the Puerto Rico Department of Education.
The donation of laptops was made through Telenet’s “Adopt a School” program and were delivered Wednesday by the Liberty Foundation, Liberty Puerto Rico’s nonprofit organization.
Naji Khoury, president of the Liberty Foundation, handed out the laptops on behalf of Telenet, along with Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, to outstanding students who achieved academic excellence but also helped their communities after Hurricane María. T
his took place during a brief ceremony at Liberty’s main headquarters in Hato Rey. Liberty will provide free Internet service to those students for six months.
“We are very grateful to Telenet for this donation and to Telenet fiber inspector Christophe Schillewaert, who came up with the idea while working with the volunteer brigades after the hurricane,” said Khoury.
“We loved Christophe’s initiative and we helped coordinate this effort with Telenet to support our schools. This is what we like to do at Liberty. Helping the communities we serve is part of our core values,” Khoury said.
Schillewaert came to Puerto Rico in November 2017 as part of a volunteer crew from Liberty Global affiliates in Europe to help with Liberty’s infrastructure rebuild after Hurricane María struck the island on Sept. 20, 2017.
After meeting a teacher whose school was burglarized after the storm, Schillewaert met with Liberty Puerto Rico’s management and started the “Adopt a School” program to donate the laptops to Puerto Rican students living in communities in need.
“I am pleased we can actively contribute to the reconstruction of Puerto Rico after the passage of Hurricane María last year,” said Ann Caluwaerts, chief corporate affairs at Telenet. “After helping to rebuild the network in 2017, we keep on supporting the local communities by donating 50 laptops for schools in Puerto Rico.”
