Digital education for the children of Nigeria

ProFuturo presents in Berlin its next project for the northern states of this African giant

   ProFuturo has presented in the forum G20 Africa Partnership-Investing held in Berlin the different activities that have been carried out in the last decade. We are on track with real solutions for real problems. We have been working in Latin America for ten years and in 2016 we started our journey in Africa, explained César Alierta, president of this initiative promoted by the Telefónica and La Caixa foundations. He also pointed out that almost four million children (3.8) use digital education programs. The goal is to reach 10 million children by 2020 and 50 million by 2030, Alierta said.

   The President of ProFuturo has considered the cost of offering children from disadvantaged countries the opportunity to be at the level of Western education a viable and necessary investment. Alierta has also announced the closing of agreements in three bands with the Forum of Governors of Northern Nigeria and the Church to bring this digital educational solution to the communities of this country. An agreement that, he said, is replicable in other environments and countries.

This agreement has its origin in the inter-religious meeting of Assisi in 2016, where Alierta presented ProFuturo. There, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, got to know the initiative and a commitment was made to study its implantation in Nigeria by the Community of Sant Egidio. The intermediation of the representative of the Catholic institution for the European Union and Nigeria, Jan de Volder, has been fundamental in enabling ProFuturo to reach the African country.

   The agreement will be coordinated by the inter-religious dialogue center Kukah Center, an entity promoted by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, which plans to carry out pilot projects in 120 schools in the north of the country, estimated to benefit about 70,000 Muslim and Catholic children. The initiative will be launched in June with the identification of schools, and will continue with teacher training in September for its progressive implementation in schools throughout the 2017-2018 academic year.