What We Do

Spare Keys finds technology resources that would otherwise be going to waste and uses them to help solve the issues facing our most vulnerable people. In a nutshell, we find people and corporations getting rid of perfectly good computers at the end of their asset lifecycle and provide them to women’s shelters and others in need.

The provide:

LAPTOP COMPUTERS: For security reasons, most womens’ refuges ban guests from bringing their own phones. Spare Keys sources and purchases computers for use as loan devices in womens’ shelters, allowing women to arrange rental accommodation, continue their work, organise new bank accounts, and begin their life anew. The computers also help children continue their schooling and ensure they don’t fall further behind their peers.

TABLET DEVICES: Many schools now require children to have tablets to complete their school work. Kids going through traumatic times also need respite in the familiar, and there is tremendous benefit in providing access to their favourite TV program, movie, or game, while the world around them is in chaos. We provide refurbished iPad and Android devices to womens’ refuges for children to use for school work, educational games and entertainment purposes.

PRINTERS: We furnish womens’ refuges with cost-efficient printers, giving women and children escaping violence and disasters the ability to print paperwork, school work, and colouring-in pages.

COMPUTER HEADSETS: Help provide privacy for women in refuges who need to conduct video conference meetings and phone calls. When they’re finished, the kids can then complete their school work (and catch up on Bluey episodes to bring a little joy to their lives, and keep their routine) without their mothers, or other guests, having to listen in.

How you can help

Visit our donations page

If you need help

If you’d like to access our services, please contact us (please note that we don’t provide rooms directly to the public). If you need emergency accommodation, please check out our ‘find a room’ page.