Businesses in Portsmouth donate mobile phones to Portsmouth Hive

Hive Portsmouth has recently had to move to a bigger location to help its volunteers deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but didn’t have enough mobile phones.

Councillor Donna Jones sent out a plea via Twitter asking firms to donate five mobile phones in order to help the team co-ordinate the supply and support of vulnerable people in the city, to which three people responded.

She said: 'I was saddened to hear that the Hive was struggling to communicate with people after having no mobile phones. The work they are doing to get prepared to support people during the peak of this virus is vital.

'They are coordinating charities all across the city, raising money and co-ordinating hundreds of volunteers.

'When I heard the news re phones, I reached out on social media to ask the local business community to supply phones. I had a great response with three companies coming forward. I am hugely grateful to the businesses for supporting the plight and stepping up to the plate.

'It’s so important that we all support each other and the response has proved that Portsmouth has an incredible ability to do that.'

North End technology firm, Curatrix donated five Vodafone phones with unlimited phone calls, texts and 20GB of data.

Aerospace firm, Airbus, which has a base in Portsmouth, donated 10 Moto 4G phones with chargers.

A spokesman for Airbus said: ‘We were approached by the council last week who asked if we had any spare phones and our IT guys found 10 that were about to be recycled. We’re happy to help out where we can.’

Launched in 2018, Hive Portsmouth is a hub of city volunteers geared at getting essential products to vulnerable people who need them.

It is a partnership between Portsmouth City Council, the city’s voluntary, community and social services and the Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group.

Portsmouth boxer and author of Pompey's Boxing Past, Andrew Fairley also donated three phones.