Arrow Electronics Bags ‘2021 Communitas Award for Excellence’


03/31/2021

DigiTruck was developed with in collaboration with CTG.


Dailycsr.com – 31 March 2021 – Arrow Electronics has bagged the “2021 Communitas Award for Excellence” under CSR category for the “DigiTruck project”. The latter comprises of a fleet of mobile classrooms power by solar energy which incubate enterprise and attempts to reduce the digital gap in “sub-Saharan Africa”.
 
The “Communitas Awards” is an international recognition towards the spirit of “people helping people”, in short “communitas”. The winners of the said award “unselfishly give of themselves and their resources” as a pioneer of how business operates “to benefit their communities”. The recognition is programme specific which involves “volunteerism, philanthropy, or ethical sustainable practices”. Depending on the effectiveness and the reach of the programme, the nominees are judged.
 
Talking about the DigiTruck, Arrow informed that it was developed with “international nonprofit Close the Gap”, in short CTG, whereby utilising “used shipping containers” to build “trucks” upon trailers, besides powering them with solar energy and equipping them with refurbished computers. At present, there “eight DigiTrucks in service”. However, Arrow is supporting “three of the units” including a prototype that still continues to run on the European streets as “mobile classroom” besides promoting “circular economy initiatives”.
 
Furthermore, Arrow stated:
“Arrow sponsors a DigiTruck based in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, which provides online lessons and computer literacy for schoolchildren orphaned by HIV/AIDS, Covid-19 and other illnesses. Another DigiTruck makes a circuit serving the areas surrounding Kenya’s two largest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa, offering computer literacy and online job skills training for adults”.
 
DigiTruck was launched in August 2018 in Kenya and ever since it has offered “enterprise training” to over thousand people while female formed the majority of the crowd. While, Arrow also added:
“The DigiTruck at Mt. Kilimanjaro fills an important gap, giving students from age 14 to 20  who have left school a second chance at a bright future. More than a dozen of the students in Tanzania have progressed far enough on the DigiTruck’s curriculum of English literacy, STEM concepts and life skills to re-enroll full time at a private boarding school”.
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com