Turn.io’s ability to give social impact organisations the tools they need to amplify their work is having a significant impact on the global education sector.
The number of Turn.io clients working in education is growing, with the likes of Bridge International Academies, Fundza, Nal’ibali, British Council and the South African government’s HIGHER HEALTH and TeacherConnect platforms coming on board over the past year.
“It is gratifying to see the number of education-based organisations partnering with us to engage with their communities in new and impactful ways,” says Pippa Yeats, Turn.io co-founder and Product Manager.
“We are particularly proud of how we’ve been able to play a part in supporting remote learning solutions for low income communities during the current pandemic - as seen in the platforms developed with Bridge International Academies and British Council.”
A recent roundtable explored different ways that social impact organisations have used Turn.io – from WhatsApp-based mobile interactive quizzes as a learning tool to the delivery of books in different languages, directly into the hands of readers.
Among the organisations currently using Turn.io are:
- Bridge International Academies which has created a WhatsApp-based interactive quiz platform to help deliver solutions to children in Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda and Kenya during the current learning crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) which is using WhatsApp to advance its reading-for-enjoyment campaign, focusing on three areas – connecting with its community-based Funda Leaders; the annual re-registering of reading clubs and a story request service in multiple South African languages.
- The British Council, which has created a WhatsApp-based resource portal as a way of providing home education material to parents, guardians and caregivers during the current school closure and recovery period. The platform features audio lessons, stories and songs for English First Additional Language and English Home Language for grades R-4. It is available in South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho.
- The HIGHER HEALTH pre-screening service. As step one of the South African Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology’s protocol on Screening, Testing, Linkage to Care and Contract Tracing, students and staff at higher learning institutions are encouraged to use the platform to do a daily COVID-19 HealthCheck.
- The South African Department of Basic Education’s TeacherConnect which has been developed as a way of empowering and supporting teachers by providing access to useful content and resources The first tool on the platform is HealthCheck which is playing a crucial role in facilitating the reopening of schools to teachers, learners and support staff in South Africa.
- FunDza Literacy Trust which has been using WhatsApp to get its already popular reading content into the hands of thousands of new readers since late 2019.
“Our successful and ongoing partnerships with education-focused organisations and institutions are a powerful example of how the world’s most popular messaging app can be used for real and meaning social impact,” concludes Yeats.
Turn.io was developed to enable social impact organisations like these to have personal, guided conversations at scale – conversations that result in actions with a powerful social impact.
