Watch: ‘Technology brings a different view of what education is for us’

Earlier this year, Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, expanded their Instant Network Schools programme to Mozambique, a country on the south-east coast of Africa.

Instant Network Schools is a technology solution designed to give young refugees and their teachers access to education. At its heart is a ‘school in a box’ that includes tablets for students, a laptop for the teacher, internet connectivity, a projector, speaker, solar charging and a library of digital educational resources – these transform existing classrooms into multimedia hubs for learning.

The two new Instant Network Schools in Mozambique, located in the Maratane Refugee Settlement and the city of Nampula, support over 11,500 students and 200 teachers.

Deise, a Vodacom employee who volunteers for Vodafone Foundation’s Instant Network Schools programme, helps teachers learn how to use the technology.

There are 47 Instant Network Schools currently in operation supporting over 126,000 students and 1,600 teachers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, South Sudan, Egypt and Tanzania. But the work does not stop there. Almost half of all refugee children are still out of school. Vodafone Foundation’s ambition is to connect 500,000 refugees and their communities to education by 2025.