UNESCO celebrates ITU and UNESCO Regional Digital Inclusion Week

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO National Office for Palestine participated in an event to commemorate the Digital Inclusion Week under the global theme “Serving the underserved in times of crisis: No one left behind”.

The event was held at Omar Ibn Al-Khattab school in the village of Nouemeh near Jericho to celebrate the steps taken by the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Palestinian Telecommunications company as they facilitated internet connectivity during the COVID-19, in collaboration with a local Internet provider – CoolNet company. The event also celebrated a generous donation, which consisted of a number of computer devices and two laptops in support of the computer lab at the school for the benefit of students and teachers.

Eng. Ishaq Sider, Minister to Telecommunications and New Technologies expressed his pleasure for having seen “the faces of young student with their bright future ahead of them, who will benefit from this intervention”. Mr. Sider promised to keep up this collaboration with the partners and the Ministry of Education to support more schools “until technology is reached throughout rural areas and connected to every home”.

In return, Mrs. Noha Bawazir, Head of UNESCO Office and Representative to Palestine, stressed the importance of Public-Private Partnerships and collaborations, which support Palestinian institutions. Mentioning that UNESCO was also celebrating the Media and Information literacy week, Mrs Bawazir highlighted  the important linkages between technology and education and stressed that “ the two are closely linked as these competencies can empower citizens and young people to be more involved in media development, access to information, and knowledge for all”.