ITWORX Education calls to bring Syrian refugee children back to school

ITWORX Education, the leading education services and software solutions provider, a division of the global software professional services organization ITWORX, backed by the EuroMena funds, was proud to participate at the Syria Donors Conference that was held in London on February 4, 2016, where private sector companies committed 75$ Million through partnership to educate Syrian children. ITWORX Education’s participation came as part of its ongoing efforts to better the Syrian crisis and extend a helping hand to the Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, by supporting international plans to get them back into school.

ITWORX Education’s commitment towards this educational and humanitarian cause is deeply-rooted and was also most recently demonstrated in partnership with The Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Ed) at Davos for the World Economic Forum, late January, where over 50 private companies from the coalition committed 50$ million to educate 1 million Syrian refugee children.

At the Syria Donors Conference, donor nations pledged to give $11 billion in aid to Syrians by 2020 as world leaders tried to tackle the world's worst humanitarian crisis, addressing the economic and educational needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million refugees in other countries. ITWORX Education, alongside leaders from around the world, NGOs and many others, came together and joined forces to find tangible solutions and raise significant funding to meet the needs for all those affected by the Syrian crisis, in the lead up to the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in May. London’s summit aimed at Identifying long term solutions and addressing long-term needs by finding ways to create jobs and provide education for those less fortunate.

Attendees and keynote speakers included distinguished figures such as Her Highness, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, Chair of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF); Mr. Romen Mathieu, Chairman of ITWORX and Managing Partner of the EuroMena Funds; and Mr. Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

During his keynote address, Mr. Romen Mathieu commented on the participation of ITWORX Education:

“If the objective is to have 1 million children back to schools by end of this schooling year, then it will be extremely difficult and challenging. It is just impossible to build enough schools or prepare existing colleges or even recruit huge number of teachers to meet the needs of thousands of Syrian children. The good news is that it is totally possible to bring 'Education' itself to all of them and at a much lower cost only through the perfect combination of efforts between 'us'; the private sector, the generous money commitments and the great work of prominent NGOs”. He added: "ITWORX Education is already on track. We are hopeful to help Syrian refugee children with our e-learning platform, where the devices, the content and the logistics around that are smoothly provided, compared to the conventional solutions cost and time".

ITWORX Education has mapped out a course of action to create virtual schools across strategic touch points, built around extensive digital content tied into curriculums, a state of the art online learning platform (WinjiGo), and smart technology-powered learning centers whereby education would be accessible both offline and online. This education project will run in partnership with their Excellences, Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Tom Fletcher, former UK Ambassador to Lebanon and currently Director of Global Strategy for the Global Business Coalition for Education, of which ITWORX Education is a member. The non-traditional educational initiative capitalizes on the power of simple

and movable technology. The solution is designed to provide extended access to self-learning opportunities. More importantly, the learning centers would be located inside the refugee camps to address transportation challenges, and draw on the collective clout of community and volunteer contribution from teachers all over the world.

In September 2015, ITWORX Education piloted a successful virtual schooling experience with the Saad Nayel School, located in a refugee camp in Bekaa Valley in Lebanon’s Zahle' district, near the Syrian borders. Going forward, it hopes to replicate this success for other Syrian refugee camps across the region.

Adding to this, Mr. Hatem Sallam, CEO of ITWORX Education commented:

“The commitment to put one million students back to school in 2016 is certainly doable if the donations are made now. We look forward to support from the international community as for these refugees to become active members of a truly knowledge-based economy, they must be equipped with the right learning and personal development. ITWORX Education e-learning solution falls under a much wider ‘school without borders’ future of sorts we’ve envisioned for underserved communities across the globe".

As a member of GBC-Ed, ITWORX Education hopes international donors contribute to finance for “speed” schools to accelerate the transition back into school for Syrian refugee children who have fallen behind. By its innovative educational IT solution, the company aims to deliver quality educational content through technology for schoolchildren and training material for teachers.

A Microsoft Strategic Education Partner, ITWORX Education delivers end-to-end solutions to transform education using technology across the EMEA region that have been met with record success stories reaching over 4.5 million users. The solutions enable education authorities, private and public schools, colleges and higher education

institutions to realize their e-learning vision. One of its success stories is in Qatar, where the company provided the Supreme Education Council (SEC) with an engaging, multilingual, social e-learning environment through its proprietary learning management system - the Connected Learning Gateway (CLG). CLG is designed to enhance the teaching process for teachers, make learning fun and insightful for K-12 students, and facilitate communication and collaboration between school administrators, teachers, and parents. The platform was rolled out across all of Qatar’s independent schools as part of a nation-wide transformation plan and is being using in schools today.