Closing the Digital Divide

Let’s make a difference – access to education results in a better future and a better planet for us all. How are we going to achieve that? Let’s put our heads together on the 14th September at 6 PM CET.

Willow Thrive, a Belgian-based NPO, has organized an online conference regarding the digital divide. With the help of Close the Gap, a social enterprise that specializes in the collection of used IT assets, they raise the much-needed awareness about the digital divide.

The online conference thereby supports Willow Thrive's motto, “we innovate, we resist, we win," which aims at:

- Raising awareness about the digital divide

- Inspiring others to collect used IT assets in order to give them a second life which expands access to educational resources for children worldwide

- Raising funding

Popular personalities, celebrities and business leaders will be present to show their support for the initiative.

Join Zoom Meeting:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8600...

About Close The Gap

More and more Close the Gap is evolving as “digital for development” topic owner with new strategic programs and initiatives, both in Africa and in Europe. As a social enterprise in Kenya, Close the Gap has secured private sector investments to further develop the ‘no aid but trade’ perspective on the ground in Africa. With the recently launched Innovation Hub in Mombasa, Close the Gap has set up the first ‘incubator’ for the coastal area in East Africa. This Hub is focused on three pillars: educate, innovate and manufacture, for tech-4-development entrepreneurs and their poverty-alleviation innovations. Moreover, Close the Gap has also established the Circular Economy Hub in Mombasa, an IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) business. To ensure the success of these recent extensions to the Close the Gap social enterprise ecosystem, Olivier Vanden Eynde and his family moved to Mombasa in the summer of 2019. Good to know; the Close the Gap Kenya entity is already a Certified B-Corp!

Also in Europe, the social enterprise position is enlarged as well, by acquiring an ITAD business in Belgium. With a production capacity of 120 000 IT devices/year, CTG Circular is now Close the Gap’s end-to-end supply chain that is in control of the whole process the computer equipment goes through: from the corporates in Europe to the end users in Africa, all with a social enterprise, and B-Corp model in mind.