Home >> News: May 13th, 2014 >> Story
Satnews Daily
May 13th, 2014

Avanti Communications...Steps Up...Reaches Out...Makes Positive Lasting Changes In Kenyan Schools


[SatNews] ...the program will help up to a million of the world’s poorest girls improve their lives through education and to find better ways of getting girls in school and ensuring they receive a quality of education to transform their future.

Avanti Communications has entered a strategic partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID) to deliver a high impact education program to Kenyan schools.

DFID has contributed £9.46m in funding to the program through its Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) [1] initiative. The new partnership will reach 60,000 Kenyan pupils, including a large proportion of girls currently marginalized from education. A unique technology solution developed by the program partners will address many of Kenya’s educational challenges.
 
The program is powered by satellite broadband via Avanti’s HYLAS 2 satellite, which provides 100 percent coverage over Kenya. 

HYLAS 2 launched in August 2012 and has quadrupled Avanti's satellite capacity, providing new coverage across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

David Williams, Chief Executive at Avanti Communications, commented: “We are delighted to be leading such a significant program for Kenyan education, enabled by DFID funding. Our innovative collaboration provides a unique solution to overcome the huge challenges faced by this sector. Wide-scale deployment will positively impact hundreds of communities, powered by Avanti’s quality Ka-band satellite technology.”

Further details will be announced by the program partners this summer.  Learn more about Avanti here.

[1] DFID’s Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) will help up to a million of the world’s poorest girls improve their lives through education and to find better ways of getting girls in school and ensuring they receive a quality of education to transform their future.
 
DFID, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, is sponsoring a Girls’ Education Challenge. According to DFID, “The initiative calls on NGOs, charities and the private sector to find better ways of getting girls in school and ensuring they receive a quality of education to transform their future. The Girls’ Education Challenge will support projects that are able to demonstrate new and effective ways to expand education opportunities to marginalised girls that can be robustly evaluated to widen their impact.” To learn more about these funding opportunities, look here. 

Avanti Communications sells wholesale data telecoms to service providers which use them to create networks for enterprise, carrier, government and consumer users. The network consists of:- two high throughput satellites in orbit, called HYLAS 1 and HYLAS 2; a multiband satellite called Artemis plus a fourth satellite in construction called HYLAS 3 and an international fibre network connecting data centres in several countries. Avanti Communications has GEO satellite network spectrum filings in the ITU Master Register for Ka-band at 33.5 degrees West and 31.0 degrees East and for Ka-, Ku-, S- and L-band at 21.5 degrees East.Avanti Communications serves customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa.