GE Africa President & CEO Jay Ireland signs the cheque. Looking on is inABLE’s Executive Director, Irene Mbari-Kirika/CFM NEWS
NAIROBI, Kenya, July 29 – Kenya is among several African countries set to benefit from a skills transfer programme supported by General Electric (GE) the global infrastructure leader.
The citizenship programme dubbed ‘Kujenga’ aims at empowering people by building valuable skills, equipping communities with new tools and technology, and elevating ideas that will help solve Africa’s challenges.
GE Kujenga, GE Africa’s flagship Citizenship programme has donated Sh4.5 million towards providing equipment of a computer lab for students with visual impairment at the St Lucy’s School located in Meru. This is GE Kujenga’s first donation in Kenya. Kujenga means ‘build’ in Swahili, and GE is a partner in building Africa’s sustainable future.
The GE Kujenga programme was unveiled during this year’s World Economic Programme (WEF) held in Lagos, Nigeria in May this year.
The GE Kujenga program is founded on three pillars, “Empower”, “Equip” and “Elevate” and brings scale, impact and efficiency to GE Africa’s philanthropic efforts across the continent.
Jay Ireland, GE Africa President & CEO presented the GE Kujenga donation to Irene Mbari-Kirika, inABLE’S Executive Director.
“GE is committed to Africa’s sustainable development by making a difference through creating value for societies in ways that will empower the community. This project empowers the blind and visually impaired with skills they can use to become employable and make a contribution to Africa,” he said.
inABLE is an NGO whose mission is to empower the blind and visually impaired students in Africa through assistive computer technology.
To date, inABLE has assisted over 500 students and 27 teachers at the Thika School for the Blind – both Primary and Secondary through this programme. Through this training, they are able to read online, chat, access online services, research and do homework on their own.
Irene Mbari-Kirika from inABLE speaking at the cheque handover said: “Thanks to these labs, blind and visually impaired students are able to access online educational resources, communicate with new friends worldwide, type essays, research homework assignments, develop employable skills, use social media, and host blogs.”
Africa is a very important region for GE’s growth. GE first started operating here over 100 years ago. In 2011, the company decided to renew its focus to meet Africa’s needs and established its regional Headquarters in Nairobi.
It’s footprint in sub-Saharan Africa now consists of over 1800 employees and revenues of over $3.6 billion dollars in 22 countries.
GE is committed to supporting the continued and sustainable development of the Africa region with advanced infrastructure technologies, services and solutions in healthcare, oil and gas, transportation, healthcare and aviation.
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