Raising their grandkids in a pandemic with no Internet or backup plan

Thelma Weeks (centre) with her great-granddaughters Khadija Weeks (left), 9, and Khadirah Weeks, 5, at their Strawberry Mansion home in Philadelphia, the United States, on April 25,2020. Grandparents are raising their grandkids trying to navigate the pandemic with limited resources, technology know-how or back-up support. Photo: TNS

The Thursday morning meeting of Philly Families Connect was already wrapping up by the time Thelma Weeks finally got on the line, weariness in her voice.

Weeks, 71, of North Philadelphia, the United States, had spent three hours trying to print off school assignments from her nine-year-old great-granddaughter’s school-issued Chromebook – and it still wasn’t working.