Instant Network Schools

Mole & Bobyabu (Equateur Province)

 3 Instant Network Schools

 Size of camp: 50,000 refugees

 Set up: September 2016

“The Instant Network Team deployed 3 new Instant Network schools in Mole and Boyabu refugee camps in remote Equateur Province at the beginning of September; with Vodacom Congo and UNHCR. The camps host more than 50,000 refugees who fled civil war in neighbouring Central African Republic.

When then Instant Network Team arrived many had never used the internet. After four days of training the teachers gave their first digital lesson; teaching the alphabet. Using the Instant Classroom they are projecting the alphabet on to the screen, streaming the ABC song from YouTube (singing along) and using the tablets to practice writing.

After 5 days of training all of the new Instant Network Schools teachers graduated. The representative of the refugees said in his thank you speech to the team: “we aren’t doing this for us, we are doing it for our children, the next generation of our country and for peace”. One teacher told the team that he believes children will be more motivated to go to school, another who has been in the camp for 3 years said he was hoping to restart the children’s choir using the kit and resume the adult literacy program which had stopped due to lack of funding and infrastructure”- Oisin, Instant Network Manager.

2 Instant Network Schools

Population in camp: 143,000

Set up: March 2016

The camp, close to the Burundi border, was set up in 1997 by UNHCR and is one of the largest refugee camps globally. The camp was set up to support the influx of Congolese refugees escaping civil war. Original designed to host 64,000 refugees it has swelled over recent year to 143,000 with almost 80,000 arriving since last April 2016.

‘In spite of never having used a touch screen before, the teachers were able, after just two days of training, to build a basic lesson using the Instant Network School kit. As the teachers proudly share their first lesson on the fauna and economic activities of Lake Tanganyika, the boy next to me becomes quiet. Around 15 years old, Jean escaped the violence in DRC and has lived most of his life in Nyarugusu Camp.  Are you ok, I ask? Can I help you with what’s going on? Jean looks at the excited teachers showing – for the first time in any classroom in Nyarugusu – recent pictures, videos, maps and news items to illustrate their lesson. He replies: They showed the fish from the Lake. My mother used to cook those fish for me, and my father would bring them from the Lake. We lived so close to Lake Tanganyika then. I haven’t seen those fish since my mother cooked them for me. And I haven’t seen my mother since she was killed in the conflict and I had to flee here.  Jean sits, quietly watching the bustle of the teachers who are laughing and showing the students each new picture they find.  Whilst the Instant Network Schools focuses on improving the quality of education, this experience reminds me how isolated refugees, who can be so far away from both the homes they have left and the host communities they are living near, can understand their place in the world. And feel connected: for good’- Extract from one of the volunteers who helped set up the Instant Network School in the camp.

1 Instant Network School and 1 Community Centre

Set up: June 2015

“My name is Jacob, I am 21 years old. I have been in Kakuma for 21 years; I was born in the camp and grew up in the camp... I [still] live in the camp”.

Jacob’s family came to Kakuma refugee camp in 1995 due to war in South Sudan. During the journey from South Sudan to Kakuma, Northern Kenya, his father was injured by a landmine, and survives with an amputated leg. Jacob, his younger 6 siblings and his parents are among 190,000 people that live in Kenyas second largest refugee camp.

When his family voluntarily repatriated to South Sudan in 2008, Jacob stayed in Kakuma to complete his studies. In 2013, insecurity and political instability forced Jacob’s family back to the camp.

Jacob is currently a teacher at one of the Vodafone Foundation’s Instant Network Schools (INS).  In Jacob’s classes students learn on tablets, connected to the internet and he uses online educational resources to support his lessons.  Before he was trained for INS, Jacob had never used the internet or a computer. Now, he says he has ‘experienced a lot’, has ‘improved his teaching’ and the students are ‘more interested in learning’- Teacher in Kakuma.