Collegiettes, how many cell phones have you gone through in your lifetime? And how many are now collecting dust in your desk drawer at home while you go out and purchase the latest smartphone?
What if the approximately 500 million unused cell phones in the U.S. could serve as a lifeline for a domestic abuse survivor?
DoSomething.org is asking young people across the country to send in the cell phones in their homes and communities that aren’t being used. Those phones will then be recycled for their parts or refurbished and the proceeds will aid the National Network to End Domestic Violence in their Technology Safety Program (Safety Net).
The program addresses how technology impacts the safety, privacy, accessibility and civil rights of victims. Though technology can help victims and their children successfully flee violent batterers, stalkers and rapists, NNEDV’s Safety Net: Safe & Strategic Technology Project hopes to make millions understand how technology can also become lethal in the hands of abusers and perpetrators.
With an estimated 3.3 to 10 million children exposed to domestic violence in some capacity each year, and 13 percent of college women reporting being stalked during a four-month study, this is an issue that’s relevant for collegiettes everywhere.
To sign up, visit Dosomething.org to sign up for the campaign. You will then collect cell phones from your home and community and mail your collection to DoSomething.org with the free shipping label that can be printed from the site.
The campaign begins today. What are you waiting for, collegiettes? Clean out those drawers and send in those cell phones! Your unused cell phone could save a domestic abuse survivor’s life.