Core Corporate Responsibility projects
1. Robi-10 Minute School defining the culture of learning in Digital Bangladesh
Robi-10 Minute School (www.robi10minuteschool.com) has been at the forefront of digitizing education in Bangladesh- which is one of the core goals of the country’s vision of ‘Digital Bangladesh 2021’.
Since 2015, Robi-10 Minute School has been providing quality education and skills training to everyone free of cost and today, it teaches more than 1.5 million students of all ages every day. The sheer scale of its impact on the society is in effect redefining the culture of learning in the country. The platform has firmly positioned itself as the learning platform of the nation in the backdrop of the fourth industrial revolution.
Continuing with its strident march, Robi-10 Minute School launched its mobile application In January 2019. Till date, the app had been downloaded more than 1,462,530 times. Its official Facebook page has 2,015,374 followers; its main YouTube channel has 1.27 million subscribers. There are 1,602,749 members on its official Facebook group, the largest student group of Bangladesh.
The largest educational platform of Bangladesh has 20,000 video tutorials, 49,530+ quizzes and 1000+ LIVE classes viewed over 35,676,811 times teaching across all areas of Science, Technology, Math, Engineering and Arts. Additionally, Robi-10 Minute School organized the largest Finance Olympiad of Bangladesh with IDLC Finance Limited two years in a row with over 40,000 participants in 2019; it also organized the first University Admission Olympiad in 2019 with more than 120,000 participating students.
The platform won some of its highest accolades in 2019 as well. Robi-10 Minute School won the prestigious International Education Award (IEA) for being the “Best E-learning Platform of the year” at the IEA Summit held in Goa, India. It was also awarded the Daily Star ICT Start-up of the Year award as the country’s top online education platform. Furthermore, Bangladesh Innovation Conclave (BIC) conferred the Social Innovation award to Robi-10 Minute School in 2019 as well.
Earlier, Robi-10 Minute School had won a GSMA Glomo award for the Best Mobile Innovation for Education and Learning in the “Connected Life Awards” category at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017. The announcement came during the MWC held in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. The MWC is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry.
2. #CommonSense: An awareness campaign to put CommonSense back into the society
The freedom afforded to us by the social media platforms in most cases dims our sense of what would be termed as Common Sense behavior. Robi’s #CommonSense campaign aims to facilitate the society to hit the pause button before they indulge themselves in the world of Social Media.
Essentially an awareness campaign, #CommonSense tries to instigate behavioral changes among people through creative endeavours. The campaign has so far concentrated on awareness content focusing on short videos warning people of the dangers of crossing the streets and driving while on the phone, taking pictures of individuals without their consent and irresponsible sharing of fake news. #CommonSense has an online community of over 42,000 people that creates social awareness via videos, images and online engagement on a regular basis.
3. Safe drinking water for railway passengers
Ensuring access to safe drinking water is one of the core elements of a robust public health system. The Government has been putting a lot of efforts for ensuring that the country achieves the targets of SDG 6: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all".
Robi, an eager development partner of the Government, felt that this was an areas in which it could lend its hand to the Government. Keeping that in mind, with the technical support from the WaterAid Bangladesh, the company has set up ten water plants in ten of the busiest railway stations of Bangladesh. Considering the sheer number of people gathering at these stations, Bangladesh Railway also responded positively when Robi sought its support.
Robi’s water projects are carried out under the slogan: “Nirapod Pani, Sushtho Jibon” in association with Bangladesh Railway and WaterAid Bangladesh. The water plants have been set up at Kamalapur, Dhaka Airport, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi, Mymensing, Mohangonbg, Feni and Cumilla Railway Stations.
Each of these plants is capable of dispensing 5,000 litres of pure and safe drinking water per hour. Located in public places, these plants are evidently making a difference in ensuring easy access to safe drinking water. The plants have separate corners for males and females. Considering the special need of the physically challenged, the plants have ramps for their convenience. There is also a separate corner for ablution at each of the water plant.
The water coming through purifying units (Membrane & UV filter) has already earned the trust of the commuters travelling on trains. The regular maintenance of the plants and ensuring the quality of the water are done by regular testing in the laboratories of BUET, CUET, KUET, SUST and PWD.
4. National Information Center- 333, gets global recognition
333 serves as the National Information Centre for the citizens of Bangladesh. It is equipped to provide any government service-related information any time and from anywhere in Bangladesh. Robi and Genex Infosys Ltd are providing technical assistance to operate the call centre.
All one has to do is to dial 333. That is exactly what the citizens did in Bangladesh when Corona pandemic hit the country. Quickly 333 emerged as the national crisis centre for managing this national health crisis.
In addition to being the national crisis centre for managing Corona pandemic, 333 offers information on available public services, contact information of the peoples’ representatives, and noted Government employees, tourist attractions and detailed information about different districts. The citizens can also notify and complain against different social problems and get a response from Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs). Especially during disaster, any citizen can seek assistance from DCs and UNOs by calling 333.
All these unique features have earned 333 the recognition of being the best citizen engagement project in Asia by GovInsider- an international organization that promotes innovation in the public sector. Besides, 333 had also received the National ICT award 2019 for being the champion in sustainable inclusion and community service category. Such local and global accolades attests the tremendous contribution made by the national information center in improving the country’s public service delivery.
5. Robi and CARE Bangladesh collaborate to create female retailers under Connected Women Initiative
Robi and CARE Bangladesh, a renowned global NGO, jointly organized a day-long ‘Mobile Retailer Training’ for 50 girls in Kurigram district to create 100 adolescent retailer girls from the area in 2019. Under this joint initiative, CARE is providing smartphones and seed-capital to the girls so that they find it easy to start their career as female retailers selling talk-time, data packs, SIM cards, Mobile Financial Services and other value added services on behalf of Robi.
Robi has taken up this project as part of its Connected Women initiative championed by the global association of mobile operators, GSMA. The socially responsible initiative is expected to offer a way forward in reducing the gender gap in the use of digital technology across the country.
6. Robi Internet Corner incubating knowledge based society across the country
Robi has established Internet Corners in all divisional libraries. The Internet Corners have been facilitating the users with the window of opportunity to log on to the internet and thus to the vast reservoir of knowledge. In this context, this project is making a significant contribution towards the creation of knowledge based society in the country. Robi has provided three computers in each library for this purpose. The Department of Public Library is Robi’s partner in this projects.
