Giga and the Edison Alliance's mission to boost internet connectivity

It took Giga partners 3 days to reach the isolated village of Zardali in Kyrgyzstan, where 300 people are cut off from the world every winter. They also traveled one and a half hours by boat to connect 124 students at the remote Kiwayu school in northern Kenya.

Of the planet’s 1.3 billion school-age children, two-thirds are not connected to the internet, and half of the world's schools have no access to digital resources. Getting them online could add 20% to GDP.

Giga is a joint initiative by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and UNICEF. It works in 20 countries, from Botswana to Uzbekistan. Since 2019, it has connected more than 5500 schools to the internet, including 63 schools in Rwanda, 250 in Kenya, and 38 in the Turkestan region of Kazakhstan.

The World Economic Forum has launched the Edison Alliance, a global movement of over 50 leaders working to bring 1 billion people online to access digital health, education, and financial services. Giga is contributing to Edison Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge with its commitment to connecting all the schools in the world to the Internet.

Join the Edison Alliance's mission to connect 1 billion people.