Intelsat and Mindset Network NPC have extended their partnership to provide students, teachers, healthcare professionals and patients across Africa with access to free online educational content.
Founded in 2002, Mindset is a nonprofit developer and distributor of educational materials in Africa. Intelsat has partnered with Mindset since its inception, providing free access to satellite capacity and technology that allows Mindset to rapidly and efficiently broadcast and IP multicast its educational content to over 1,600 schools and 1,025 healthcare facilities across just South Africa.
This partnership extension comes at a time when nearly 300 million students throughout Africa have been impacted by school closures and other learning disruptions due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), according to UNESCO. Given the scope and scale of the impending crisis sweeping across Africa, Mindset and Intelsat are offering a free, unencrypted channel that allows governments, departments of education, broadcasters and nongovernmental organisations across Sub-Saharan Africa within Intelsat’s satellite coverage area to downlink and redistribute Mindset’s Learn channel.
“We look forward to helping deliver Mindset’s important educational resources to students and at-risk-youth throughout Africa,” said Intelsat Regional Vice President, Africa, Brian Jakins. “With a long history of connecting people, communities and governments across the continent, Intelsat is committed to Africa’s digital transformation.”
“We are incredibly grateful to Intelsat for helping us in our mission, and we are getting closer to Nelson Mandela’s dream to ‘Make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning,’” said Mindset Network CEO, Dylan Green.
Mindset educational resources focus on topics such as Covid-19, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, Ebola, child survival, science, mathematics, information technology and English. In addition to the broadcast, and IP streaming and multicasting distribution that Intelsat assists with, Mindset also delivers its educational content through multimedia, DVDs and print materials and a newly launched app.
