Irish charity Camara Education has won the Dóchas ‘Innovative Programme of the Year’ award for its iMlango project that teaches primary school students in Kenya.
Operating on what it calls a ‘social enterprise’ model, Camara is an Irish charity registered in six African nations providing education hubs for children in areas where access to technology isn’t readily available.
The work the organisation is doing has proved remarkably successful, with the number of students accessing its education hubs on the up.
It’s doing so well, in fact, that it took the Dóchas Innovative Programme of the Year Award last week for its efforts in Kenya under the iMlango project.
iMlango is an internet-based e-learning programme, providing opportunities for 150,000 students in 205 Kenyan primary schools delivering against three sustainable development goals.
Primarily focused on female students, the project financially incentivises parents based on their children’s attendance – it then uses technology to deliver better educational outcomes in school.
iMlango’s providing of real-time ‘measurable learning outcomes’ such as improvements in maths, its link up with public and private sector actors and its ability to monitor and reward attendance won Camara the award.
“Innovation is pervasive in many sectors, however, in the international development sector, we are playing catch up,” said Camara Education CEO John Fitzsimons.
“We need our supporters and sponsors to understand that, in order for innovation to flourish, risks need to be taken and we need to embrace failure in order to learn.”
Earlier this year, Camara’s Zambia operation revealed the learning environment for its students improved thanks to its use of ICT, with an increase in schoolgirl pass rates of around 10pc.
