[16 October 2014, Dadaab, Kenya]: Huawei has joined the Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone’s philanthropic arm, in the official opening of a transformative tablet-based education programme to pupils at 13 schools in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
In support of the Vodafone Foundation Instant Network Schools Programme, Huawei has donated 235 tablets for teachers and students in the Dadaab settlement in Kenya to offer learning programmes to 18,000 young refugees between the ages of 7 and 20. Backed by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Innovation and UNHCR Education, six primary schools and three secondary Instant Network Schools are opening in Dadaab, as well as four vocational skills centres for teenagers and young adults.
Ensuring a high quality education for a population of more than 350,000 refugees in Dadaab remains a challenge for a variety of reasons, including funding constraints and a shortage of trained teachers. A total of 378 teachers in Dadaab will be trained to provide tablet-based education programmes using Huawei MediaPad tablets. This transformative education programme will provide pupils with information they would have otherwise been unable to access and a link to life outside the refugee camps.
Vodafone Foundation Director Andrew Dunnett said: “There were 16.7 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2013 and 50 per cent of them are under the age of 18. Tablet-based learning programmes will provide many of the children in Dadaab with an unlimited information resource that they would otherwise not have had. This is another example of how Vodafone’s technology can significantly improve people’s lives – in this case providing access to life-changing skills”.
Zhangxialong, Deputy CEO at Huawei Kenya said: “Here in Kenya, our aim is to connect the country to all possibilities with Huawei’s technologies and solutions for telecommunications networks, enterprises, as well as consumer devices. Through supporting the Vodafone Foundation Instant Network Schools Programme we aim to contribute to better education for children in refugee camps. We are here to help make the lives and education of these children better and we will continue to offer our support.”
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