A pop-up technology clinic held at the Sykhiv Community Centre in Lviv on Saturday 19 September repaired 312 devices, advised more than 600 visitors and ran eight short workshops on artificial-intelligence safety and online privacy, organisers reported on Monday. The daylong event was staffed by 28 volunteer technicians and educators and funded by a municipal microgrant and a regional digital-rights NGO, who together contributed UAH 420,000 (about €8,000).
The clinic opened at 09:00 and closed at 17:00, operating at table stations laid out in the centre’s assembly hall — a low-slung Soviet-era room with peeling varnish, vinyl chairs and a wall clock that runs five minutes fast. Attendees queued for diagnostics, battery replacements and data-recovery checks while others attended 20-minute sessions on identifying misleading AI outputs and limiting app data access. “We fixed household items people rely on every day and answered fundamental questions about how AI features in apps handle personal data,” said Anett Heller, volunteer coordinator for the Open Circuit Collective, the civic group that organised the event.
Organisers provided a breakdown of services: 190 mobile phones, 72 laptops, 28 tablets and 22 home routers received either repairs or diagnostic interventions; 120 devices needed software updates and malware scans; 54 were assessed for hardware replacement. Attendance peaked at 13:00, with 620 individual visitors recorded across the day. “We repaired a mix of physical faults and software problems — the latter often tied to outdated systems and poor password practices,” Heller said. “The AI talks were short, practical and deliberately non-technical.”
Participants included pensioners, parents with small children and small-business owners. Tracy Parker-Kennedy, who travelled from the neighbouring Sykhiv district with a broken wireless router, said the advice went beyond a single repair. “I came for the router but left with a fixed device and clearer steps to check which apps collect location data,” she said. Several attendees requested printed step-by-step leaflets in Russian and Ukrainian for later reference. Volunteer translators were available for a handful of non-Ukrainian speakers.
The format — combining low-cost repairs with brief tech-literacy sessions — aims to address gaps in local digital infrastructure and skills that municipal officials say were exposed and widened since 2022. The Lviv City Council’s Department of Digital Development provided the microgrant and a room at the community centre. A council spokesperson said the department regarded the clinic as a pilot that could be replicated in other districts next year if follow-up monitoring shows measurable reductions in repeat faults and improved device security. City teams will evaluate the project in the coming month.
Not all demand could be met. The clinic turned away about 90 visitors who arrived after capacity for same-day repairs was reached; those names were added to a waiting list and prioritised for follow-up evenings. Izabela Zemanová, a volunteer trainer who ran the AI-safety sessions, said demand for simple explanations remained high. “People don’t need academic debates; they need clear rules — how to check permissions, how to back up photos, and when to take a device to a paid repair shop,” she said. “That practical, repeatable advice is what keeps devices in use longer.”
Organisers plan to run monthly clinics in Lviv boroughs through the winter and to publish a free online toolkit for other Ukrainian towns that want to copy the model. The Open Circuit Collective said it had already fielded inquiries from volunteer groups in Chernivtsi and Poltava about hosting similar events. The Lviv City Council said it would consider extending small grants for community digital clinics in its 2027 budget cycle if the pilot’s follow-up report shows improved local resilience and lower electronic waste.
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