The Giga Knowledge Spark kicks off! Starting in Switzerland, the programme, seeks to leverage the research capacity of academia in the policy, business, ICT, and technical fields, tackling one of today’s most pressing global challenges: ensuring that every student, everywhere can access and benefit from meaningful connectivity.

17-year-old Darlene Vakoko is a Congolese refugee, she lives in a small brick walled house with corrugated iron sheets. Along with her parents and her younger brother, she fled the ravages of the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking the relative peace and stability of the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.

In this interview, Mea Thompson shares her insights as Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of unconnected.org, a global non-profit bridging the digital divide through sustainable connectivity in underserved communities worldwide. She brings 15 years of experience in telecom and international development to her work.

Mei Lin Fung is Chair and Co-Founder of the People Centered Internet, begun in 2015 (with Vint Cerf, often called “a father of the internet”), which works to create a more equitable digital world. In this interview, she said it is time to shift the conversation from access to school to its impact. “These are the stories that need to be told—and the data that needs to be seen,” she says.