Improving access to culture, education, and information for refugee, marginalized, and underserved communities
Education and vocational training
The context
Whether they live in vulnerable urban neighborhoods, remote rural communities, or camps for refugees and displaced persons, populations around the world lack access to information, education, and culture. Around 75 million children have seen their education disrupted by conflict and more than 250 million children lack basic reading, writing, and math skills. Additionally, 52% of the world’s population does not have access to the internet.
The project
In 2014, in collaboration with the designer Philippe Starck, Libraries Without Borders created the Ideas Box, a mobile multimedia center and learning hub that enables vulnerable communities to access to information, as well as educational and cultural resources. More than 90 Ideas Boxes have been deployed in 22 countries and in a variety of settings including refugee camps, urban centers, and libraries. However, only one third of Ideas Box users worldwide are women.
Fondation CHANEL is supporting Libraries Without Borders (LWB) to develop the “Ideas Box 4 Women”, a cross-cutting initiative that aims to promote women’s and girls’ empowerment throughout all of the Ideas Box projects. The initiative includes the development of five thematic kits, which include pedagogical resources, activity cards, and training modules, to raise awareness about key gender equality issues, as well as activities specifically designed for women and girls.
The partner
Libraries without borders is an international non-profit organization that works to provide communities – particularly the most vulnerable – with easy, open, and free access to libraries, information, and education. LWB is currently active in 25 countries throughout the world.