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UNHCR, Vodafone Foundation and Safaricom, have announced a partnership to bring transformative mobile-based education programmes to pupils at 13 schools at Dadaab refugee camp. The Instant Network Schools at Dadaab refugee camp will offer learning programmes to 18,000 young refugees between the ages of seven and 20 years.

“We are happy to be part of this innovative project that will eventually significantly transform the lives of at least 65,000 children in Dadaab. This is a platform that will enable child refugees and teachers’ access digital educational content as well as the internet,” said Safaricom Director of Corporate Affairs Nzioka Waita.

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.”

Statistics from UNHCR indicate that as of April last year, the population in Dadaab stood at 423,496 registered refugees with 58 percent being below the age of 18 years.

Many school-age children arrive at the camp with no prior education and school enrolment remains low. UNHCR has found that, of the 279,000 children living in Dadaab, 41 per cent are enrolled in primary schools and only 8.5 per cent are in secondary education.

Safaricom is providing connectivity across all the13 solar-powered schools donated by Vodafone Foundation, while telecommunications equipment company Huawei has donated 235 tablets to the programme.

A total of 378 teachers in Dadaab will be trained to provide tablet-based education programmes. As part of their studies, pupils will use the technology to make contact with school children and professionals in other countries.