Vodafone Foundation achieves goal to improve 300 million lives by 2025

Vodafone Foundation is celebrating after reaching its ambitious goal to improve 300 million lives by the end of 2025.

Since April 2016, Vodafone Foundation has improved an estimated 305.6 million lives through projects it leads and through local Foundations around the world.

A total of 91.5 million people have directly benefitted and more than 214 million people have indirectly benefited from Vodafone Projects.

This has been achieved through a diverse range of partners including local governments, international NGOs, local charities and community groups. Together, they help Vodafone Foundation to scale projects and create impactful, sustainable outcomes.

Connecting For Good

Under the umbrella of Connecting For Good, Vodafone Foundation is dedicated to using technology to enable a safe and inclusive world where everyone can thrive

It uses all the available tools at its disposal – including technology, partnerships, research, and employee engagement – to drive sustainable change.

To deepen its impact, the Foundation this year streamlined activities to focus on addressing root causes in the communities with the greatest need.

This means the Foundation is now focussed on targeting three core challenges: driving inclusion through digital learning, tackling harm and abuse, and supporting individuals and communities in times of crisis.

Driving inclusion through digital learning

Digital skills and digital inclusion are essential in today’s world, but especially for social inclusion, wellbeing and employability. That’s why Vodafone Foundation is expanding access to digital education, especially for those who are most underserved, in both formal and informal education settings.

Skills Upload Jr

The Foundation’s award-winning Skills Upload Jr programme runs in eight countries across Europe. It provides digital skills training and teaching materials to students and teachers, aiming to transform how technology is used and taught in schools.

Skills Upload Jr has now reached 10m students and teachers, more than 3,000 schools, created over 200 tech hubs and generated 64.8m views of educational social media content.

Instant Network Schools

Vodafone Foundation, in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has provided over 378,000 refugees, internally displaced and host-community students with access to quality digital education.

More than 6,800 teachers and coaches have been trained through Instant Network Schools (INS). There are 131 centres across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, South Sudan, and Tanzania.

A new partnership between Amref and Safaricom Ethiopia is using Instant Network Schools technology with the ambition to empower 50,000 young people through digital opportunities, including 2,000 scholarships.

Hi Digital

The award-winning Hi Digital course is enhancing the lives of older people in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czechia, and Romania. It offers face to face workshops, digital support and an online learning platform for over 65-year-olds.

In FY25/26, Hi Digital has improved the lives of over 200,000 older people and their families across Europe. It has a presence in 47 Vodafone stores in Ireland and 96 stores in the Netherlands, helping approximately 20,000 customers with free, practical support in store.

Tozi

The Tozi app was launched to tackle the growing issue of online bullying. It was rolled out during 2023 in Ireland in collaboration with Dublin City University and ISPCC Childline.

Tozi has now successfully scaled to Portugal and Spain, with future launches set to continue in Europe during 2025.

Tackling harm and abuse

Vodafone Foundation has been at the forefront of using technology to tackle societal issues for over a decade. During the last year, the Foundation has worked to scale mobile applications that support survivors of abuse and harassment.

Bright Sky

Bright Sky is an award-winning, free, and easy-to-use app and website that provides information on domestic abuse and links to support services.

Created in partnership with the UK-based crisis support charities Hestia, Aspirant, and Hope After Harm, Bright Sky is designed for anyone experiencing domestic abuse themselves, or for those worried about a relative, colleague, or friend.

Available in 13 countries, during the last year Bright Sky continued to reach new survivors and their peers with 332,527 new downloads. Bright Sky has now supported over 1.3 million users.

Zoteria

Zoteria is an award-winning app developed in partnership with UK LGBTQ+ anti-abuse and rights charities Galop and Stonewall. It enables people to access vital and reliable support services, including advice on hate crime, housing, mental health, and sexual health services.

In FY24/25, the team continued to participate in awareness campaigns and events to further promote its mission. Zoteria was prominently featured during National Hate Crime Awareness Week, with the ‘Hate Happens: Technology’s Role in Addressing Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Encounters in the UK’ research launch.

Supporting individuals and communities in times of crisis

For over 10 years, Vodafone Foundation has been innovating technical solutions for crisis responses. Initially focussed on mitigating the impact of crises, the Foundation’s is now increasingly collaborating with partners to build resilience and preparedness.

M-mama

Vodafone Foundation’s m-mama programme is an innovative, low-cost emergency transport system that has significantly improved maternal and neonatal outcomes in Sub-Saharan African countries.

In the event of a maternal or newborn emergency, people can call a toll-free number. Calls are routed to a dispatch centre, where trained staff use the m-mama app to triage cases and coordinate free transport via ambulance or registered community drivers.

M-Mama operates in Tanzania and Lesotho and is now exploring expansion to Malawi in 2025. To date, M-Mama has saved more than 7,437 lives and facilitated 182,000+ emergency transports, leading to a 15% reduction in maternal deaths.

Instant Network Emergency Response

Vodafone Foundation’s Instant Network Emergency Response (INER) programme deploys trained volunteers and portable communications technology to disaster zones around the world.

Over the past 13 years, INER has evolved from a 2G network in three boxes into an award-winning initiative that has responded to over 28 emergencies globally. It has kept millions connected and supporting thousands of aid workers.

In FY24/25, INER Responded to Hurricane Beryl (Category 5) in the Caribbean, floods in the Poland-Czechia board and severe flooding in Valencia, Spain.

NG-SOS

NG-SOS is a life-saving app that provides an enhanced emergency response. The app provides the most accurate information about a caller by sending their location, medical profile, next of kin contacts, mobile battery status and more, enabling a faster and more personalised response which saves lives.

The app includes a video call function, for users to show emergency services their accident to allow an improved response and provides both real time AI translations, addressing language barriers and early warning notifications of emergencies.

It is available in Czechia, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia. It is also now connected to Finland’s emergency number, 112, meaning millions of app users from those countries can access emergency rescue and support during trips to Finland.

To learn more about the work of Vodafone Foundation, download and read the latest annual report here.