With many people, including students, working from home these days, the demand for computers has never been higher.

That's where the SaskTel Pioneers come in.

The Pioneers are a service group that refurbish and deliver used computers to schools, libraries and non-profits in Saskatchewan.

"With the COVID crisis and everything going on, we've got lots and lots of students looking for computers and we have requests more than we have computers." said Barry Rutherford of the Pioneers.

The program is called Computers for Schools, although Computers for Home would seem more appropriate at this time.

Rutherford said the pandemic has kept them very busy and short of supply.

Last year, they gave away more than 8,000 computers. This year, they can't keep up with the demand.

Rutherford said they accept used computers from businesses, big and small, as well as federal and provincial governments.

They fix up those surplus computers from two repair and refurbishing centres in Saskatoon and Regina.

The volunteer workshops are staffed by SaskTel Telephone Pioneers and high school students.

"We wipe the drives, refurbish them and make them available to kindergarten to grade 12 schools," he said.

They will take old computers and laptops — provided they support Windows 7, 8 or 10. They will also accept keyboards, microphones and cables.

"We will fix them up," he said.

"If we can't fix it, we will take the parts out of it that we need and then we recycle them properly through Sarcan."

To donate or to receive, Computers for Schools can be reached at 306-931-5625 or by email at npac@sasktel.net