Technology that benefits children and families

Text to Change, a mobile-phone based learning project, helps to build job skills of young people in Battambang and Siem Reap, Cambodia. Through text messages sent to their mobile phones, Skype sessions and follow-up meetings, young people, teachers and caregivers have the opportunity to improve their English skills, build their self-confidence, and provide career guidance.

As part of its emergency response to help refugees arriving in Europe, SOS Children's Villages has set up and operated ten ICT Corners in Macedonia and Serbia since 2015. An ICT Corner is a mobile container unit equipped to offer free WiFi, access to computers, printing/scanning/copying services​ and charging stations for phones and other devices. Since 2015, hundreds of thousands of ICT services were provided to over 210,000 users.

BT has connected 30 SOS Children's Villages to broadband Internet via its global satellite network since it the launch of the BT's Connecting Africa programme in 2013. In addition, digital Health Management Systems for seven different SOS medical centres in Africa were implemented.
Read the Case Study on the partnership with SOS Children's Villages created by BT.

Aiming to increase literacy among children aged 6 to 9, this ICT4D project - the Open Space Literacy (OSL) Project - was started in 2014. Student and teacher development are combined with active community involvement and purposeful use of new technologies. Since then, 27 schools in Nairobi county, Kenya, have participated, and 18,000 students, 664 teachers, 204 management boards, and about 19,000 members of the local communities have benefitted from the OSL approach. A study carried out in participating schools has shown that OSL improves both scores and attendance of students.

An ICT4D project that delivers educational support to children and teens with learning difficulties in mathematics, reading, writing and spelling was made possible thanks to the donation of equipment by Mr. SIMS and own funding from SOS Children’s Village La Paz.

Text To Change is a mobile-phone enabled programme that is being employed to empower women in the areas of child rights and protection, financial management, and health and hygiene. Women participating in SOS Children’s Villages programmes established their own bank accounts for the first time, as well. Participants report motivation to learn, improved communication and relationships with their children, and better family dynamics.  The programme has been scaled-up to reach 700 people.

This UNESCO-supported ICT4D project applies innovative teaching methods using ICT to the teaching and learning of chemistry and physics. Teacher training and re-training, new laboratory equipment, and other learning materials were funded by the project. Over 150 teachers of physics and chemistry, and some 470 children from a Hermann Gmeiner School benefitted.

Supported by Cisco, this project aims to teach young people ICT essentials and develop their skills in using information and communication technologies. At the end of the 2014 school year, the 85 young participants will have had the opportunity to take a Cisco Networking Academy certification exam, increasing their employability.

Young people developed ICT competencies and in-demand job skills through interactive learning techniques and career guidance. Training at the Resource Centre was provided for teachers as well to improve their career guidance activities in schools. In its first three years IT4You has helped more than 750 young people and more than 400 teachers build ICT skills. Watch the video.

SOS Children’s Villages established Learning Centres in 68 locations to provide children and young adults with access to networked computers and to equip them with basic technical and digital literacy skills, plus the opportunity to practice English through online programmes.

SOS Children’s Villages Bangladesh established Computer Learning Centres in seven locations to improve ICT access for children in SOS family strengthening programmes. Computer Learning Centre courses aim to enhance knowledge about fundamental operation system functions, software applications, information security, and their uses for academics and career-related tasks.