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UN partners with Worldreader to give Kindles to students in refugee camps


Laura Hazard Owen's avatarGigaom

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is partnering with nonprofit Worldreader on a pilot project to provide Kindles (s AMZN) loaded with ebooks to 2,300 students in refugee camps in Tanzania.

Worldreader was cofounded by former Microsoft (s MSFT) and Amazon executive David Risher and economist Colin McElwee in 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Europe and Africa. It has launched pilot programs providing Kindles to schools in nine sub-Saharan African countries over the past two years, but McElwee said that this is arguably its most important partnership because the UN is “an enormous potential scaling partner” aiding “the most vulnerable people on the planet.” If the pilot works, the program could expand to other refugee camps overseen by the UN.

A student at the Ntimigom School in Kilgoris, Kenya. http://www.flickr.com/photos/48114529@N06/6776770558/in/set-72157629062449936/ A student at the Ntimigom School in Kilgoris, Kenya. http://www.flickr.com/photos/48114529@N06/6776770558/in/set-72157629062449936/

The Tanzanian camps house about 105,000 refugees affected by the conflicts in the Democratic…

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Changing the World: November 27 – Educating the World


Today’s suggestion is about doing something about the many children throughout the world that receive no education or very limited education. This can be especially true of many girls in some countries and seems to be more so in some strict Islamic communities and regions.

It is difficult to know just what can be done in this field by the ‘average Joe,’ so to speak. Whereas individuals may not be able to do a lot personally, they may be able to contribute by being part of a larger organisation that is able to bring pressure to bear on governments around the world.

It is also possible to be part of a humanitarian organisation that seeks to assist people to receive education and/or by donating money to such a group.

For some ideas on this particular suggestion have a look at:

www.campaignforeducation.org & www.unicef.org

A response to reading ‘365 Ways to Change the World,’ by Michael Norton