Dr. Prema Nedungadi of AmritaCREATE was an invited panellist at UNESCO Mobile Learning Week-2017 held at Paris, France from March 20-24, 2017. This year’s event was co-organized by UNESCO and UNHCR and was held under the theme ‘Education in Emergencies and Crises’ and examined how innovations that leverage mobile technology can improve the learning opportunities for vulnerable children and adults, especially those who have been displaced, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda.

Mobile Learning Week is UNESCO’s flagship ICT in Education conference; this year it brought together like-minded institutions and practitioners working with a common goal to improve education in refugees and children in crisis. Dr. Nedungadi presented ‘Amrita RITE – Supporting Education After Natural Disasters’, featuring the Amrita RITE Education Project in disaster-affected Uttarakhand, that provides technology-enriched, value-based education to children in 19 Amrita Village Education Centers. AmritaCREATE had started this education program for displaced children in the aftermath of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, when M. A. Math provided widespread disaster-relief in the Kedarnath Valley.

MLW-2107 examined how new and affordable technologies can help strengthen inclusion in education, preserve the continuity of learning in conflict and disaster contexts, provide learning opportunities for refugees and other displaced people. facilitate the integration of learners in new schools and communities and catalyze innovation in the education sector and improve the impact of humanitarian interventions.