It’s a bit of an obvious thing to say that we believe the Internet changes lives, especially through education. One of the ways we put this into practice is through our ongoing partnership with NGO, Africa Tikkun. Since 2016 we have supplied free high-speed Internet to its child and youth development centres in five communities around South Africa.
Afrika Tikkun’s mission is to invest in education, health and social services for children, youth and their families through community centres of excellence and strategic partnerships. Improved Internet connectivity has helped the organisation achieve a 97% high school final year pass rate, with 67 distinctions in 2017. In total, 8,586 young people, from two-years-old and older, benefitted, and 2,884 became employable, with 928 placed in a job or self-employed. Of those completing high school, 65% were enrolled in tertiary education or other further learning opportunities.
Meet 19-year-old Athabile Fatyela from Mfuleni, Cape Town. She plans to become a chartered accountant and is currently at the University of the Western Cape starting her BCom degree. With Afrika Tikkun’s help she was able to achieve high grades both in grade 11 and 12, and she says: “A big part is the access to Internet and computers, I wasn’t so great at operating a computer but I am now more confident and was able to get previous question papers online to prepare for my final exams.”
We are proud to be part of such amazing results.