Orange Jordan partners with UNICEF, the Orange Foundation and e-Learment to launch its Digital Schools Program in Jordan

​ Building on its highly successful e-learning initiatives, Orange Jordan has partnered with UNICEF, the Orange Foundation and its e-learning program vendor, e-Learment, to launch its Digital Schools Program in Jordan, which will deliver free-of-charge educational content in digital format to several UNICEF-operated education centers in the Kingdom.The Digital Schools Program was originally launched by the Orange Foundation — Orange Global’s CSR arm — in 2014, delivering much-needed educational support material to 130 schools in Africa. The program designed low-cost servers that housed the regularly updated educational content, which can be accessed remotely via a WiFi connection and a web browser. These servers were delivered as part of an all-inclusive digital school kit that also contains 50 tablets and a video projector. In Jordan, the program will deliver digital school kits to a total of 5 educational centers operated by UNICEF Jordan as part of its Makani (My Space) initiative, which aims to reach 90,000 boys and girls in Jordan who are excluded from any form of education and are exposed to high risks of child labor, and exploitation. Orange will extend its partnership with UNICEF and eLearment to launch digital schools in the remaining 195 Makani centers around the Kingdom.   “As a committed, socially responsible operator, one of our core missions is to bridge the digital divide by providing digital tools that can reach and serve underprivileged communities in remote areas,” explained Orange Jordan’s CEO, Jerome Henique. “This far-reaching initiative builds on our continued efforts to find sustainable and effective solutions for communities that have no access to formal education in Jordan. Given that the program delivered impeccable results when it was originally launched by the Orange Foundation in Africa, we sought to implement the initiative in Jordan in order to tackle the ever-growing problem of education gaps among disadvantaged and refugee communities.”Henique also noted that this program establishes a solid foundation that could be expanded in the future to deliver Digital School Kits to other centers around the Kingdom, which will undoubtedly help provide its beneficiaries with a better education experience and greater opportunities for self-development. “The Makani initiative is a holistic program that provides alternative education, psychosocial support and life skills under one roof,” explained UNICEF Jordan Representative Robert Jenkins. “This partnership with Orange Jordan perfectly complements our efforts to create a wholesome educational environment for the program’s beneficiaries, offering them an ideal gateway into the digital world and cultivating a healthy association in their minds between technology and education.”It is worth noting that Orange Jordan had also implemented several other e-learning initiatives in the Kingdom, most notably its "Zidni Elman" service, which utilizes smart devices like tablets and desktop computers to deliver interactive after-school curricula for students; and "Minhaji," which saw the operator partnering with the Jordanian Ministry of Education to digitize school curriculaEND