On the afternoon of Thursday, December 12, 2024, the MTN Rwanda Telecommunications Company, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Rwanda Department, signed a cooperation agreement aimed at fighting for the rights of children ‘children in the world of technology.

It is an agreement called ‘Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),’ which aims to promote children’s rights, how to use technology and solve the problem of malnutrition.

MTN Rwanda has committed to investing 34,625,000 Frw in this study, in order to assess the effects of children on the Internet, including abuse of technology, violence and exploitation.

Another goal of this study is to help parents instill good online behavior in their children. It is expected that the results of this research will play a significant role in taking care of the technological safety of more than 500,000 children who use the Internet in Rwanda.

The CEO of MTN Rwanda, Mapula Bodibe expressed his acceptance of this partnership, saying: “We are proud to work with UNICEF Rwanda on a program that is in line with our values ​​at MTN Rwanda.

This partnership supports our ‘Help Children Be Children’ campaign launched in 2022, demonstrating our commitment to children’s digital safety, as internet access continues to grow across the country.”

It is while the Director of UNICEF in Rwanda, Julianna Lindsey, said that this partnership shows that UNICEF alone cannot solve the problems in education, nutrition and the movement to protect children. He added that in order to solve all these problems completely, there is a need for the support of the State, and of the private sector in particular.

“I am delighted to see MTN leading the way in demonstrating how multi-agency resources can be used to make a real difference in the lives of children across the country.”

It’s not just research, because in the agreement MTN and UNICEF signed, it includes supporting the campaign called ‘One Egg per Child,’ which aims to eliminate the problem of malnutrition in children, where MTN will help in this program to give eggs to children every day.

It is expected that 1,000 children will benefit from this program, especially those in Gicumbi District.

MTN has also decided to waive all internet charges on various educational sites, including the Rwanda Education Board (REB) e-learning resources, UNICEF, Itetero, Ingazi and others. This means that the child, guardian or parent will go to one of these sites for free.

Through this facilitation, it is expected that more than 1.5 million children, teachers and childcare workers will benefit.