All the children in the world have the right to a future, to be an astronaut, doctor, artist or agronomist, and our programme can make millions of stories possible and make their dreams come true. Given the lack of information and resources in more vulnerable environments, the families and children come across different obstacles preventing access to quality education and school attendance, factors that are essential for their present and future.
As a result, ProFuturo was created in 2016 with the aim of providing children with the digital education experiences and resources required to help them to sow the seeds of their own future.
Today we’re in a position to state that, over the seven years that we’ve carried out our work, we’ve achieved, and are achieving, our goal of bringing the transformational power of digital education and technology to the most vulnerable regions of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Seven years bringing them closer to their future
On 14 July 2016, César Alierta, the Chairman of the Telefónica Foundation, and Isidro Fainé, the Chairman of the La Caixa Foundation, signed a strategic partnership for the joint development of the ProFuturo programme. The project was launched with the aim of facilitating quality digital education in the most vulnerable environments of the world and promoting equal opportunities for all children, providing them with the knowledge and resources required to bring them closer to their future.
Throughout these seven years we’ve trained teachers in digital skills and brought our educational proposal based on technology and innovation to scores of children in dozens of countries. We’ve also witnessed the transformational power of digital education in the lives of many of these children.
“Our great challenge lies precisely in promoting access to education. What in many countries we take for granted is an unattainable opportunity for them. Making it possible has been our main driving force for seven years”, declared Magdalena Brier, the managing director of ProFuturo.
Evidence-based digital education
ProFuturo contributes to the educational transformation upon the basis of the evidence found by the programme in the vulnerable environments that it’s implemented in.
The impact samples are a series of evaluations and research studies carried out in the different countries it operates in, and, over the last few years, they’ve highlighted that the programme contributes, among other goals, to reducing absenteeism and drop-out rates, improving the digital skills of the children and teachers, increasing the motivation to go to school and furthering the families’ commitment to their children’s education.
The programme’s monitoring and evaluation methodology can identify the aspects of educational quality that are being improved in each context, how it affects its beneficiaries and what should be taken into account so as to improve it. Between 2018 and 2022, ProFuturo has conducted 14 research studies in 16 countries that have revealed how its efforts are being transferred to the lives of teachers, school heads and students and their families.
“On this path it’s important to evaluate to what extent we contribute to the educational transformation in the places we operate in. We look for evidence. We can highlight some of the evidence and findings extracted from different studies and research activities that encourage us to keep on working. For example, the programme contributes to reducing absenteeism and school drop-out rates, it increases the students’ motivation to go to school and the teachers’ motivation to continue training and applying new methodologies in the classroom and it even reinforces the families’ commitment to their children’s education”, explained Ms Brier.
Constantly hand in hand with major partners
ProFuturo is committed to achieving SDG 4 of the United Nations, quality education, in order to guarantee inclusive, equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
To achieve our commitment, we aspire to create a large international network of partnerships and we work with other institutions and companies that make the digital transformation around the world possible. The partners of the programme include UNESCO, UNHCR, Save the Children, Empieza Por Educar, the OEI, Fundación Entreculturas, World Vision and the OAS, among other leading organisations. Moreover, the programme is implemented in each country with the collaboration of one or several local partners and, in most cases, the cooperation of the Ministries of Education and Governments.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all the partners who’ve cooperated with us throughout these seven years and made everything possible. We’re also very grateful to all the entities that have appreciated the values behind our programme, which has won several international awards and received acknowledgements such as the WISE Award for educational innovation and the GLOMO Award at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) for its digital contribution to the SDGs, as well as recognition for implementing one of the best educational practices at the UN Transforming Education Summit.
Happy 7th birthday!
To celebrate our 7th anniversary, we want to pay tribute to the futures planned by the children who form part of our programme, those they dream of having that are closer to becoming a reality thanks to digital education.
We leave you with the compilation video of our seven years as creators and witnesses of millions of stories:
And the interview with Magdalena Brier, ProFuturo’s managing director, on the COPE’s La Linterna programme:
