Repton pours cash into NSPCC cyber-cafe

Reseller to raise £30,000 for children's charity

Reseller Repton is bucking the sluggish economic trend to such an extent that it can afford to give its kit away.

Repton is helping the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to build a new cyber-cafe in a Young People's Centre in Tower Hamlets.

The reseller has pledged the proceeds of its annual Karting Challenge for vendors, distributors and system integrators, which is supported by Computing, to the charity.

The aim is to raise £30,000, enough to cover all the hardware and software costs for the new cafe.

The design, installation and maintenance of the cafe will be performed free by Repton.

Everything from wiring, connections, firewalls and servers to consultancy, will be supplied by the VAR, said Damon Dance, its sales and marketing director.

"It's okay to give a cheque to someone and then pat ourselves on the back about it, but we wanted to do more. This is something which is about time and money, and something that is really connected to our business," he said.

The new centre containing the cyber-cafe is due to open in November. It will be a safe place for children to relax and discuss any worries they may have concerning abuse or neglect, said Sallie Glasson, corporate fund-raiser at the NSPCC.

"This really is a radical approach to child protection," she said. "Having looked at all our projects going on around the country, we realised this was the one where Repton would be able to help us with a solution to our problem."

Dance said he believed that the Karting Challenge would "walk the £30,000 target". Repton has also set up a secure website for NSPCC donations, with the back end of the site run by the reseller.