Internet.org is a Facebook initiative that aims to provide a variety of free services to people via their mobile phones. Yes, you guessed right, FunDza is one of the free services!
You could be reading FunDza’s fantastic locally-created stories for free if you are with Cell C.
We celebrated with a launch in Soweto together with soccer fans from Soccer Laduma organised by Fefe Sonti. Jennifer Fong, Internet.org’s head of content partnerships for Africa, and her team presented on the benefits and free services on offer in areas of education, finance, communication, health, information, jobs, news, women interests and sport.
Zimkhitha Mlanzeli and Sonja Kruse from FunDza then took to the stage in a practical demonstration of how to access our stories for free via this service. What better way than to read to the audience! They were teased into a story by having one chapter read to them and encouraged to read the rest via Internet.org. For those on the Cell C network who were eager to read the rest of the story, we saw some excited downloading of the Internet.org app, whilst others downloaded the FunDzApp via Google Playstore.
Soccer fans from Soccer Laduma
Jennifer Fong – Internet.org’s head of content partnerships for Africa
Another highlight was when a member of the audience asked for help with his device. After downloading and looking for stories on FunDza he found out that he now had access to services like Wikipedia too – all via Internet.org. What would he like to search for, Sonja asked. He suggested looking up the longest bridge in the world! So, straight after reading an exciting Harmony High book, the group started doing research on this topic for a school project!
Thank you, Internet.org and Cell C, for helping us to build information bridges. Thank you, Fefe Sonti, for bringing your eager soccer fans to the launch and for being the main organiser of this event. And a special thanks to Waahida Tolbert-Mbatha from Kgololo Academy for transporting FunDza to and from the event.
Want to connect to FunDza via Internet.org? Read how here or visit Internet.org to find out more about this fantastic initiative.