We are very excited to share that VVOB has won the 2020 edition of the Prize 'Digital for Development (D4D)’ with our Bambanani video series. These open educational resources support teachers in South Africa to embrace diversity and to strengthen their inclusive teaching practices. Thank you to all who voted!
Prize D4D is awarded to “outstanding initiatives that use digitisation and (new) technologies as a lever for development towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”. It is a biannual initiative of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) and supported by the Belgian Development Cooperation.
Prize D4D consists of three categories: the innovative idea/startup – ‘iStartUp’; the success story – ‘iStandOut’; and the public award – ‘iChoose’. VVOB’s Bambanani video series was one of 3 projects nominated for the public iChoose award, alongside a project by Trias in Uganda and one by Impala Bridge in Benin.
The newly appointed Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir (left) announced VVOB the winner at an award ceremony on 15 October in the RMCA in Belgium.
iChoose Bambanani
‘Bambanani’ is an isiZulu word that means something like ‘hold together’, ‘be united’. The Bambanani video series was developed for Teaching and Learning for Inclusive Education, a project co-funded by Belgium and the EU that revolves around inclusive education in South Africa.
Bambanani supports teachers to embrace diversity and to strengthen their inclusive teaching practices. There are 15 videos in total, all between 5 and 10 minutes long. Each video transports you to a South African classroom in action and shows how a teacher differentiates their teaching methodologies, content and assessment strategies in numeracy and literacy classes. As such, the series provides teachers and other educators with relevant and clear inspiration on how to reach every learner and stimulate participation by all.
The videos were created in partnership with the South African government, and are freely available to all on YouTube as Open Education Resources under a Creative Commons License. They are available in English, with subtitles in Sesotho, isiZulu and isiXhosa. Since their development in 2018, the videos are also continuously being broadcasted on tv, reaching over 2 million homes in South Africa and over 9 million homes across Sub Saharan Africa.
Discover a snippet below, and find the complete playlist of 15 videos on YouTube here.
Thank you!
General Director Sven Rooms (right), who accepted the award, wishes to extend his gratitude to all who voted for the Bambanani video series and to congratulate the fellow nominees, Trias and Impala Bridge, for their important work. “This recognition is encouraging to us for two important reasons: it shows people’s support for inclusive education and making it a reality for all, but it will also create opportunities for VVOB to further invest in D4D initiatives”, he shared.
“Thank you to our partners in South Africa, and to the Department of Basic Education and the South African Council for Educators in particular. Thank you to our donors, the Belgian Development Cooperation and the European Union, to create the space for us to set up partnerships to ensure every South African child has the right to quality education. And of course the biggest of thank you’s to our colleagues in South Africa for their commitment to quality work.”
