How donating data can help those in need

Meet Laurel and Amelia, just two of the people who’ve been helped by your donated data from our Donate Your Data program.

2020 has been a rough year. So, let’s break it up with some feel-goods from some of our favourite customers. This one comes to us from Laurel and Amelia with the help of our good friends The Smith Family.

Laurel was doing it tough as a single mother of her nine-year-old Amelia. She wanted the very best for her daughter, whose dream was to someday be a doctor. But due to financial pressures that dream seemed unobtainable.

Donate your data to help those in need

We couldn’t let that happen.

In partnership with The Smith Family, we were able to help Amelia keep up at school and stay connected with her friends, relieving some of Laurel’s financial struggles.

"The financial support took the pressure off me having to work out where we were going to get the money for things she needed for school,” Laurel explains.

The COVID 19 lockdown had a huge effect on schooling across Australia. Especially for kids like Amelia, whose internet was limited to her mother’s mobile plan. Often finding the hot spotted data would run out before she could complete her homework.

To make sure Amelia had the same access as the rest of her peers, we provided both Laurel and Amelia with free data.

"Having free data from Optus has enabled Amelia to keep up with her schoolwork and stay connected with friends,” Laurel explains.

"This has been great during lockdown. Even if it's just for ten minutes a day, being able to see her friends is a highlight for her in the morning. Sometimes if she is feeling down, we can only do so much, but I can see how fantastic talking to her friends online is for her.”

So, what does this mean for little Amelia?

"The data has been great because I can do my schoolwork at home and not worry about getting cut off. It helps with all my subjects and means that I can talk to my friends, which has been good, especially during lockdown,” Amelia says.

“I'm so grateful to Optus. They are really good people, and I think they deserve gold medals."

Alright, folks that’s your warm fuzzies for the day. If you’d like to help people like Laurel and Amelia, you can make a difference by donating your data with us.

Not with Optus yet? Get a mobile or data SIM plan with enough data to share with people in need.