Bridging the Digital Divide for Refugee Students in Palermo, Sicily .

To be disconnected in a digital world is to be deprived of opportunities to learn, communicate and develop skills for the 21st century. For refugee students, struggling with so many basic needs, the opportunity to receive digital hardware and educational resources, especially in the time of COVID 19, can be a lifeline. Today most students are digitally connnected but those who live in deprived economic and social conditions are missing out. Siciliy, the gate to Europe for thousands of asylum seekers, escaping the lagers of Libya across the Mediterranean Sea, is home to a many such refugee students. REACTs 2020 Digital Solidarity project will specifically target marginalised refugee students, alongside local Italian children in Palermo in Sicily, allowing them to access digital hardware in the form of tablets, as well as educational online resources. In the refugee context, technology can provide internet connectivity and access, support communication with family and friends across continents, provide education and employment opportunities, facilitate distribution of housing and other resources, enable financial access, and provide a record of information about a displaced person's identity, among other uses.

Access to Legal Aid and Social Rights: the Migrants Sans Papiers collective at ARCI Porco Rosso in Palermo , a resources and advice center for those most in need.

Many vulnerable refugees and migrants arriving in a new country are often exploited due to a lack of understanding of their rights and resources available. REACT in 2020 is specifically partnering and supporting an open to all community centre in downtown Palermo that offers legal advice, health and housing access, job search and cultural and language mediation to refugees and migrants who have often found themselves abandoned, trafficked or simply overwhelmed by a system they little understand. REACT will contribute vital resources to sustain the frontline and voluntary based services offered by the collective Migrants Sans Papiers at Arci Porco Rosso. The drop-in centre has become a lifeline to many men and women. Many of those who found rescue through the work of the centre decide to offer their help in return as volunteer mediators. It is a frontline collective effort that uses a rights based approach in its work, helping migrants and refugee accessing their rights. The centre monitors and denouces injustices and enables individuals to become independent men and women.