Mo Salah named first ambassador for Instant Network Schools

25 Feb 2020

Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah has become the first ambassador for Instant Network Schools which aims to give a quality education to refugee and host country students. 20 new Instant Network Schools will be launched this year as the programme prepares to enter Egypt for the first time.

Mohamed Salah. Image source: Fars News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Instant Network Schools was set up in 2013 by Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to give young refugees, host communities and their teachers access to digital learning content and the internet, improving the quality of education in some of the most marginalised communities in Africa.

To date, the programme has benefited over 86,500 students and 1,000 teachers ensuring that refugees and children from the communities that host them have access to accredited, quality, and relevant learning opportunities.

There are 36 Instant Network Schools currently operating across eight refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR are jointly investing €26m 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.