Vodafone Foundation – UNHCR Egypt

Children at Al Farooq Omar school in Cairo had a special day when football star and Instant Network Schools (INS) Ambassador, Mohamed Salah, paid them a surprise virtual visit in 2021 and shared his thoughts on why digital education is so important to their learning.

Salah, is an Ambassador for Instant Network Schools. The initiative, set up in 2013 by the Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, works in some of the most marginalized communities in Africa to give young refugees, local communities and teachers access to digital learning content and the internet.

INS transforms existing classrooms into multimedia hubs for learning, complete with internet connectivity, sustainable solar power and a robust teacher training programme.

The content is localised and aligned to national curriculums, which supports disadvantaged learners to study core subjects in the classroom and, crucially, increases access to opportunities for both study and future work opportunities. The programme supports over 129,000 refugee students and learners from local communities in six African countries.

Currently, 18 secondary schools in the greater Cairo area have launched the INS programme, and an expansion to more schools is being prepared.

Approximately 18,000 students, 360 teachers and (indirectly) 54,000 members of the community in Egypt are reached. Each INS school benefits from connectivity, the establishment of a local content server and the installation of an INS classroom, including a projector, laptop, speaker system and classroom tablets.

Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR are jointly investing €26 million to expand the programme to benefit 500,000 refugee and host community students and 10,000 teachers.

By 2025, 255 new Instant Network Schools will be opened, including 20 schools planned this year.