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Summer Drinks with Colin McElwee, co-founder of Worldreader

English

July 11 OF 2019 from 07:30 PM to 09:00 PM

What we can do to change the future of Africa and the future of Europe!
The most critical geo-political challenge facing Europe.

The International Barcelona Chapter is holding their annual Summer Drinks with Colin McElwee, co-founder of Worldreader. 

A few centuries of colonialism and some 60 years of so-called "independence" have left African countries and hundreds of millions of Africans in enormous need of education at scale and jobs at scale.

Find out how you, as ESADE alumni with global perspectives, can contribute to the future of Africa and Europe. 

Colin McElwee co-founded Worldreader in 2010 with David Risher. Worldreader allows books to be accessed everywhere around the globe, regardless of the reader’s economic circumstances. Using low-cost technology, a personal digital library and a worldwide network of corporate and non-profit partners, it helps millions of people reach their potential. This global non-profit organisation offers a collection of over 45,000 titles from more than 490 publishers in 44 languages including Kiswahili, Hausa and English, thus contributing to local heritage and identity. Worldreader makes these titles available to over 17 million people in 69 countries by means of tablet-based early reader programs designed for students and a mobile-reading app designed for children and adults.

Since 2010, 7.5 million people have read more than 15 million hours of content on the two platforms. The educational impact of the Worldreader program is determined by rigorous monitoring and evaluation. Surveys conducted by Worldreader on mobile phones reveal that although women and girls account for 23% of readers on the Worldreader reading app, they consume 66% of the content, showing that digital reading has a notable positive impact on marginal groups.

Partners include UNESCO, UNHCR, Amazon, Pearson, Microsoft, Opera, USAID, DFID, Penguin Random House, governments around the world and many others. Worldreader operates in sub-Saharan Africa and India, and in 2018 will be launched in Jordan and Mexico.