"WISE" winners & altruistic innovators

"WISE" winners & altruistic innovators
By Euronews
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More than a thousand education decision-makers will attend the WISE World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha between the 13th-15h November. The event aims to develop education, nurture new approaches and promote best learning practices. This year’s theme is “collaborating for change” and six projects that have transformed people’s lives will be awarded for their extraordinary work. This edition of Learning World looks at two of the event’s worthy winners that have both improved the lives of young people, in very different ways.

Cambodia: Out of the slums

The Cambodian Children’s Fund, or CCF offers free education and boarding for youngsters living in poverty, liaising with the country’s public school system to ensure students’ studies match the government’s education program.

Scott Neeson founded the charity in 2004 after taking a holiday that was to change his life. The sights he witnesses during his stay – impoverished children scavenging for food in the local landfill – proved so distressing that the former film producer set up an educational charity to get youngsters out of the dump and into the classroom. The CCF provides education, nourishment and healing to some of Cambodia’s most destitute communities. Today the organisation takes care of more than 1,200 youngsters and extends its services to provide for their families and communities in crisis.

Denmark: Braille on demand

Another “WISE” winner is RoboBraille, a Danish service tool that helps visually impaired people gain better access to information and education. It was developed by the Danish Centre for Visual Impairment and converts text documents into Braille or audio files at the click of a button. The service is easy to use with everything done online: all the user has to do is to send RoboBraille an email with the text document they want converted, attached.

It is free for non-commercial users for work, study or play and thanks to its increasing popularity Robobraille is being set up in different languages all over Europe. Expansion is on the horizon and the team are hoping to soon bring their innovative pioneering product to the world.

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