Note From CEO – August Newsletter

Dear friends,

I am happy to share good news with you. UNICEF Innovation Fund is partnering with us in e-reading technology for Inclusive Education in Kenya! Our strategic aim for this work is to grow the Kenyan market — with Kenyan publishers and on a sustainable basis — for quality educational materials for the new Kenyan curriculum. You can read more about the project at http://unicefstories.org/2017/07/11/ekitabu/. 

We’re also happy to report that a key partner in Digital Literacy Trust, Benetech, is collaborating with us in our pilot with Thika School for the Blind to bring Kenyan curriculum materials in accessible formats to the print-disabled community. Partners in this effort, in addition to Benetech, include MOE Directorate of Special Needs Education (MOE-DSNE), Kenya Union of the Blind (KUB), Kenya Institute for Special Education (KISE), Kenya Institute for the Blind (KIB), inABLE.org, Education Development Trust (EDT), and UNICEF Kenya.

I look forward to sharing more with you on both these major initiatives.

More good news, as you may have seen in the Daily Nation.  At the end of June in Mombasa, in collaboration with CEMASTEA, MOE, TSC, and KeSSHA, we awarded the first annual ICT Teacher of the Year Awards (iTOYA). We created iTOYA to recognize teachers for excellence in creative use of ICT for teaching and learning. I’m thrilled to note that Sister Anastacia Amollo, Principal of St. Mary’s Lwak Girls in Siaya, with whom we partnered last year to bring digital content to her school from Kenyan publishers, was this year’s overall POYA winner!! You can read more about iTOYA here.

Finally, the 2017 Digital Essay Competition submission period has closed. Now begins the judging process, culminating in the National Prizegiving ceremony on 27th September at Nairobi International Book Fair in Sarit Centre. I look forward to being there with as many of you as can fit into Sarit Centre!!

With warmest regards,
Will

Source: eKitabu