Canadian ‘Best Social Startup’ is trying to bring
quality education to secondary victims of Ebola
quality education to secondary victims of Ebola
Toronto, Canada (November 25, 2014): Over one million children in Liberia have been out of school since July, when the Ebola outbreak led the government to close all schools. The Rumie Initiative (Rumie) has taken action to prevent countless children from missing out on the benefits of education and technology.
The social tech startup launched #EduOverEbola, an online crowdfunding campaign to send educational tablets to Liberia on November 20, 2014. Rumie surpassed its goal within 36 hours. Every dollar pledged to the Rumie Initiative’s Indiegogo campaign goes directly to the field.
The social tech startup launched #EduOverEbola, an online crowdfunding campaign to send educational tablets to Liberia on November 20, 2014. Rumie surpassed its goal within 36 hours. Every dollar pledged to the Rumie Initiative’s Indiegogo campaign goes directly to the field.
“Today we are at a critical inflection point where it’s possible to begin using technology to tackle one of
humanity’s most pressing problems: that a billion children around the world lack access to a proper
education,” says Tariq Fancy, Rumie’s founder. Using innovative technology Rumie makes one dollar go 100 times further than it could before. Rumie puts high quality, opensourced educational content onto lowcost tablets and sells them at cost to schools, NGOs and other organizations implementing education programs. Rumie puts over $5,000 worth of content on an offlineusable $50 tablet.
B. Abel Learwellie, founder of Liberian NGO Camp for Peace and a partner infield, says: "I see the Rumie as a powerful educational tool, especially for our fragile educational system... From my experience since I started working with the children with Rumie, children who have never had the habit of reading have begun reading with no supervision. They are also using the Rumie Tablets to motivate their peers."
About the Tablets:
About Rumie:
Rumie is a tech startup founded in 2013 by Tariq Fancy that brings free education to the world’s underprivileged children through lowcost $50 tablets (a full digital educational library for the cost of a
book). Since Rumie’s pilot deployment to Haiti in 2013, Rumie has worked with partners in 5 countries and is planning projects in 6 more (Pakistan, Uganda, South Africa, Moldova, Egypt and the USA).
In just a year, Rumie has raised almost $1M in funding from private donors, led by Rob McEwen, the
founder of Goldcorp and current CEO at McEwen Mining, Ed Clark, CEO of TD Bank Group, Emily Fine at MHR Fund Management, Accenture Canada, and other business leaders in the US and Canada. Rumie was just named the World's Best Social Startup by Global Entrepreneurship Week.
humanity’s most pressing problems: that a billion children around the world lack access to a proper
education,” says Tariq Fancy, Rumie’s founder. Using innovative technology Rumie makes one dollar go 100 times further than it could before. Rumie puts high quality, opensourced educational content onto lowcost tablets and sells them at cost to schools, NGOs and other organizations implementing education programs. Rumie puts over $5,000 worth of content on an offlineusable $50 tablet.
B. Abel Learwellie, founder of Liberian NGO Camp for Peace and a partner infield, says: "I see the Rumie as a powerful educational tool, especially for our fragile educational system... From my experience since I started working with the children with Rumie, children who have never had the habit of reading have begun reading with no supervision. They are also using the Rumie Tablets to motivate their peers."
About the Tablets:
- Super power efficient: Less than $1 a year to charge
- Proven content: The open source textbooks and videos on our tablets have been tested in the US
- And have been proven to be more or as effective as costly commercial textbooks and tutoring sessions.
- Works without Internet: Content is preloaded onto the device itself
- Approved content only: Only educational content can be loaded
- Measure Impact: Background analytics automatically track student progress
- Rewards: Kids unlock playing time for games by completing educational exercises, adding incentive
- One tablet impacts 10 children
About Rumie:
Rumie is a tech startup founded in 2013 by Tariq Fancy that brings free education to the world’s underprivileged children through lowcost $50 tablets (a full digital educational library for the cost of a
book). Since Rumie’s pilot deployment to Haiti in 2013, Rumie has worked with partners in 5 countries and is planning projects in 6 more (Pakistan, Uganda, South Africa, Moldova, Egypt and the USA).
In just a year, Rumie has raised almost $1M in funding from private donors, led by Rob McEwen, the
founder of Goldcorp and current CEO at McEwen Mining, Ed Clark, CEO of TD Bank Group, Emily Fine at MHR Fund Management, Accenture Canada, and other business leaders in the US and Canada. Rumie was just named the World's Best Social Startup by Global Entrepreneurship Week.
