Google through its philanthropic arm, Google.org is committing massive amounts of money towards making education accessible to children all over the world. According to UNESCO, over 130 million students have not been able to learn basic reading or mathematics, even several years of going to school.
Google.org has in the past two years spent $50 million in the bid to improve education and basic technology in developing countries all over the world. Nine countries have benefited from the scheme, and by the end of the year, Google plans to extend this kind gesture to 20 countries.
Brigitte Hoyer-Gosselink, who is the leader of Google.org’s education programs in a blog post said that Technology is pivotal in bypassing the boundaries which limits accessibility to education to people in far away countries of the world.
The primary focus of these funding is to get to students in war-ridden zones, to provide educational materials and to help in teaching the teachers. Apart from giving out educational grants, Google.org has also donated towards racial justice, treating people with Ebola and Zika viruses, and in taking care of migrants and refugees who escaped from combat zones. The philanthropic arm has given out about $110 million in education grant in the past five years, and it also gave $11.5 million in February in support of racial justice.
Google doesn’t just stop at providing funding for these projects, the company’s engineers and other Starr spend time working together with Learning Equality, which is a nonprofit group which provides software for books and other educational materials such as tutorial videos and. Other educational materials to people who do not have internet access.
Learning Equality is working towards the development of Kolibri, which is a platform that would make educational materials available to children living in areas without internet access, and Five Million Dollars grant has been approved for that.
Jamie Alexandre, the executive director of Learning Equality, expressed the company’s delight in Google.org’s commitment to working together with them in the bid to make educational materials accessible globally.
Recipients of the grants include Million Sparks Foundation, Phratam Educational Foundation, Phratam Books’ StoryWeaver, War Child Holland and Khan Academy.
Clooney Foundation for Justices has also received grants from Google.org, aimed at providing education of Syrians refugee kids staying in Lebanon.
Google is not alone in these philanthropic efforts, as other tech companies such as Salesforce has lent support to schools in the Bay Areas of San Francisco, and internet.org, which is an arm of Facebook has committed to several projects, like Aquila drone. The Aquila drone uses solar energy to provide WiFi access to people in areas without internet connection.