Deep in Tana River County, in southeastern Kenya, a group of pupils form a circle around their teacher and jot down notes as they listen to a Swahili diction lesson coming from the solar-powered radio sitting in their teacher’s lap.
The radio the children at Dida Ade primary school gathered around was one of hundreds distributed for free to the most vulnerable households in the semiarid region east of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
The radios allow children without internet access or electricity at home to continue studying while schools are closed to slow the spread of Covid-19, in a project that could also help children stay in the education system after the pandemic.