Apple has launched a new collaboration to advance girls’ education opportunities with the Malala Fund in Latin America, which will be extended to India at a later date. In Brazil, where the collaboration will start today, the support will be via the 10 Apple Developer Academies in the country.
“As part of its new expansion into Latin America, Malala Fund, which works to provide quality, safe secondary education and opportunities for girls, has also offered grants to local advocates in Brazil. The advocates join the Malala Fund network of Gulmakai champions and will implement projects across the country designed to empower girls, teachers, and policymakers through skills development, school enrollment efforts and education advocacy,” a note said.
Speaking to media, Lisa Jackson, Vice-President Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple, said partnering with the Malala Fund has been a great moment for the company and will help improve the situation of at least 1,00,000 girls. “Malala has a vision of creating a network of Gulmakai champions in places where girls don’t have access to education. Apple will double the number of champions and allow the fund to expand to India and Latin America,” Jackson said in a telephone interview.
The Gulmakai champions are essentially local educators and activists who “understand the challenges in their communities and are best placed to identify, innovate and advocate for policy and programmatic solutions.” Apple will empower them with technology and tools.
While the Malala Foundation is already working in India, Jackson said there was no announcement to be made on when this Apple collaboration will be extended here. “We follow the Malala fund’s lead. We are not leading this partnership,” she said, clarifying that the Malala Fund will decide on the what needs to be done and Apple will be ready with support.
In India, she said, Apple was already supporting the Barefoot College in the electrification of rural villages through the training of “solar mamas” in Manipur, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh as well as Jammu and Kashmir. It is also backing the Akanksha Foundation and Teach For India towards ensuring high-quality education to low-income communities in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
This January, Apple had announced that it was becoming the Malala Fund’s first Laureate partner aiming at enabling the organisation to “double the number of grants awarded by its Gulmakai Network and fund new programs in Latin America and India”.
