Social Mission and Corporate Social Responsibility
Online Science Education for Children: Colombia to Latin America 2020 – 2023
GeeLearn Ltd.
Company number SC480990
Statement and Effort
Read About GeeLearn’s CSR Effort en Espanol
Read About GeeLearn’s CSR Effort In English
GeeLearn Ltd. is headquartered in the Melting Pot, Scotland’s “leading center for social innovation” near Waverly Station in Edinburgh. We have aligned with the Melting Pot as it is an organization that aligns with our values and social mission.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
GeeLearn’s Social Mission
GeeLearn’s social mission is centered around the delivery of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), and in particular science education, to children in developing OECD countries.
Leveraging our strengths as an innovator in online learning design, development, delivering, and funding, we volunteer our skills and energy and partner with organizations to deliver STEAM education to children in these developing nations, starting with Colombia.
In 2020, after an intense 5-year review, Colombia was welcomed as the newest OECD member. In 2021, GeeLearn Ltd. Partnered with the Children’s University at the University of EAFIT (Universidad de Los Ninos de Universidad Escuela de Administración, Finanzas Instituto Tecnológico) in order to volunteer its skills, knowledge, and talents to expanding the reach of Children’s University via digital learning throughout not only Colombia but the whole of Latin America.
Background of GeeLearn Ltd. and its Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative:
Online Science Education for Children: Colombia to Latin America 2020 – 2023
GeeLearn Ltd. is a social enterprise headquartered in The Melting Pot, “Scotland’s Leading Centre for Innovation”. This volunteer effort for EAFIT Universidad de Los Ninos on behalf of GeeLearn Ltd. represents a social good and comprises a major part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative over a period of three years. The CSR initiative was approved by the company’s board of directors in the Autumn of 2020. The goal of the company was to engage with an educational initiative to help serve children in a developing country that is a member of the OECD. Colombia became an official member of the OECD in 2020, the 37thcountry to do so in the organization’s 60-year history. The directors of GeeLearn Ltd. have identified 6 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that its volunteer cooperation with EAFIT’s Universidad de Los Ninos touches upon and will help Colombia achieve. These include:
SDG 1: No Poverty
End all Poverty Everywhere. Science education of children will help put a dent in poverty in Colombia over the long run through empowering a diversity of people to seek out further scientific knowledge and seek knowledge-related careers and opportunities.
SDG 4: Quality Education
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Our volunteer efforts will help deliver quality science education to children in Colombia and beyond. This digital education will be available to children of all walks of life, no matter their race, gender, or socioeconomic status, or geography.
SDG 5: Gender Equality
Accessible science education to girls in Colombia and beyond will help to reduce the gender gap as it will help position them for economicopportunities traditionally occupied by males. It will also empower them to think for analytically about the problems and challenges facing them, and grow a love of learning. Universidad de los Ninos at EAFIT has a focus on overcoming science education for girls.
SDG 8: Good Jobs and Economic Growth
Enabling children to learn science at an early age will inspire them to continue education in this field. In the long run, this will lead to economic growth through new and expanding knowledge-based industries in Colombia.
SDG 9:Innovation and Infrastructure
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation. Science education of children in Colombia today will plant the seeds for the innovators of tomorrow in the country.
SDG 9:Reduced Inequalities
Reduce inequality within and among countries. Education, including and especially science education, plays a role in reducing inequalities.
SDG 13: Climate action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy. Science education for children will address, amongst other issues, climate change, and renewable energy. In the long run, this will have a positive impact.
SDG 17: Partnership for the goals
“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”. Our volunteer relationship with EAFIT is a partnership itself between a UK-based company and a Colombian-based university, and the organizations will work together to help move the country and its people towards the SDG goals above through science education for children.
Timeframe
GeeLearn company directors approved a volunteer effort that spans from the Autumn of 2020 to the Winter of 2023 in order for sufficient time to carry out an impactful volunteer project in line with the firm’s social mission and CSR implementation.
GeeLearn Ltd. Corporate Board of Directors Approval Motion
Read the Approval Letter from the Board of Directors of GeeLearn Ltd. in both English and Spanish.
GeeLearn team members received Volunteer Visas and Identification Cards for Colombia
See them here for
Apple Zhang Colombian Volunteer Visa
Michael Clouser Colombian Cedula de Entranjeria
Developing OECD Countries
Other than Colombia, the following developing countries are members of the OECD:
About Colombia
Colombia is a developing country in South America that is one of the oldest democracies in the region. While it has been subject to internal strife and social conflict, the nation is evolving towards one that is more equal and economically fruitful. It recently became the 37th member of the OECD in 2020. One place to learn more about Colombia is through Invest in Colombia.
About EAFIT
Similar to the likes of Stanford University and Cornell University in the United States of America, the Universidad EAFIT was founded by entrepreneurs as a private institution of higher education. The group of entrepreneurs who founded it in the 1960s envisioned a place where professionals could be educated to address new challenges in finance, management, and technology. It started as the “School of Management and Finance”.
Universidad EAFIT is the leading university in Medellin and currently serves about 12,000 students including 2200 graduate students. Learn more about it here.
About EAFIT Children’s University (Universidad de Los Ninos)
The Universidad de Los Niños is one of a network of over 400 “Children’s Universities” throughout the globe and is the only Children’s University in Latin America.
The Mission: “EAFIT Children’s University fosters critical understanding of scientific knowledge by children, young people, and mediators from diverse social backgrounds.”
The Vision of EAFIT’s Children’s University: “Inspired by curiosity and amazement as the origin of knowledge; the relevance of scientific knowledge in society; and the plurality of thoughts, perspectives, and visions of the world, we aspire to be a program that:
- Impacts the research system with reflections and actions that allow children and young people to build closer relationships with science and education.
- Contributes to the analysis and search for solutions to the social problems faced by Colombian children.
- Generates platforms that allow greater interaction of different social spheres with results and debates from scientific knowledge.
- Produces knowledge based on reflection and research of its own practice.
- Replicates its model in multiple educational spaces and generates a local and Latin American movement with its own identity, according to the needs and interests of the context.”
Learn more about it here (Espanol) or here (English)
About OECD
“The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that works to build better policies for better lives. Our goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity, and well-being for all. We draw on 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.
Together with governments, ,policymakers and citizens, we work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic, and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, we provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting”. -OECD website.
Contact Information
For more information on GeeLearn’s Social Mission, Corporate Social Responsibility activities, or Children’s University of EAFIT Volunteer Project implantation, or GeeLearn’s innovative approach to elearning, please contact us below.
GeeLearn Ltd.
15 Calton Road
The Melting Pot
Edinburgh, Scotland UK EH8 8DL
Company number SC480990
www.geelearn.com
Landline: +44.131.247.1403 (UK)
Email: Clouser at GeeLearn dot com
Twitter: @GeeLearn
Alternatively, you can use our web-based form here: http://www.geelearn.com/contact/