Bonface Witiba is a 2014 FIRE Award winner, who received US$ 3,000 last year to support the OER4Schools project. He received a travel grant from FIRE Africa to attend the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2015, held in João Pessoa, Brazil from 10-13 November, where he hosted a workshop on OER: Can they bridge the digital divide gap? We catch up with Bonaface to find out how the FIRE Award and attending the IGF has helped the project.

''The 2014 FIRE Award has been fundamental in kick-starting some of the project's key activities. Besides, it has opened us up to the global platform and to other partners. Similarly, the opportunity to attend the IGF has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage in Internet Governance discussions on topical issues affecting the Internet ecosystem, thus helping us to shape the evolution of and use of the Internet in Africa and beyond."

About OER4Schools

OER4Schools is a Centre for Youth Empowerment & Leadership (CYEL) initiative that partners with Not for Profit organisations to provide rural schools in Kenya with low cost ICT equipment (tablets/e-books), WI-FI and Open Educational Resources (OERs) to enhance learning at the same time help bridge the digital divide gap. The main objective is to bridge the digital divide gap, broaden educational opportunity and help students/ teachers alike, develop the skills they - and their country - need to thrive in the 21st century.

More on OER4Schools here

About FIRE Africa

FIRE Africa provides funds for projects, initiatives, tools and platforms that harness the power of the Internet to empower the local and regional community to solve the region’s unique online communications problems. Since we ran our pilot project in 2007 to identify innovative ICT solutions to the challenges faced by local communities, FIRE Africa has grown into a fully-fledged programme that has helped over 30 initiatives in 16 countries over the last eight years.

More on FIRE Africa here.