Our vision
Our vision is to ensure future generations understand and experience diversity across the world and that through education, young people will comprehend the nature of conflict arising through lack of understanding.

Project aims:
Rafi.ki aims to achieve the following:

* Promote the understanding of global citizenship and create a more tolerant global society by breaking down cultural myths and stereotypes among young people

* Meet the needs of schools to operate an international link by providing accessible technology to facilitate the exchange of ideas and resources

* Enable teachers and pupils to develop their IT, teamwork and communication skills while helping schools meet their curriculum objectives

* Provide young people, particularly in the developing world, with the vital opportunity for their voices to be heard in policy circles

* Help other charities and organisations engage effectively with young people

Milestones reached

To date we have achieved the following:

* Engaged 600 schools from over 80 countries in dialogue with other schools

* Provided young people worldwide with a forum to voice their concerns about topical issues to policy makers

* Enabled member schools to participate in a number of topical, curriculum-linked Rafi.ki projects which cover a wide range of development themes

* Enabled schools around the world to conduct online interviews with over 50 experts, prominent people and politicians on a range of topical issues

* Enabled UK teachers to cover specific areas of the ICT, Geography, Maths, Citizenship, English, History, Art and Music curricula

* Worked in partnership with other organisations to enable them to effectively engage with young people around the world to help meet their charitable objectives

Ongoing goals:

* Continue to engage schools all over the world, ensuring that the number of UK paying schools rises to maintain sustainability of the enterprise

* Increase the variety and breadth of resources within Rafi.ki to span topics which meet the needs of the users and generate global understanding

* Continue to develop and improve the software to ensure maximum accessibility for schools with intermittent connections to the Internet

Rafi.ki is a not-for-profit, online global learning community, which is uniquely user-led. It offers the chance for schools to create international links using innovative collaboration and communication tools. UK schools pay an affordable subscription, which subsidises schools in the developing world that could otherwise not afford to participate, and ensures sustainability. Rafi.ki allows teachers to share resources and engages pupils in safe and meaningful international dialogue. It enables young people to talk to their peers, participate in curriculum driven projects and lend their voices to those issues that genuinely concern them.

Rafi.ki strives to create first class education worldwide. Through its integration in the learning process, it also aims to equip young people for life in a global society. Rafi.ki contains a number of media rich collaborative tools, providing opportunities for personalised learning, catering for a range of learning styles and allowing maximum participation, interaction and creativity. Its interactive nature maximises pupils' interest thereby facilitating the use of ICT in the classroom.

There are currently more than 600 schools in 84 countries regularly using Rafi.ki. On average 60 pupils and 2 teachers per school are involved. They are engaged in the following:

* Connecting with other schools worldwide through synchronous and asynchronous communication comprising email, moderated chat rooms, forums and low-bandwidth video conferencing.

* Gathering evidence on the global topics being studied in the classroom from “hot seat” interviews with experts, prominent people and politicians, including activists, academics, hip-hop artists, MPs and actors.

* Utilising curriculum-linked, custom-written lesson plans and expansion activities about a number of topical issues. Recent themes studied include Darfur, Islam, Global Interdependence and Citizenship, Fair Trade, Recycling, Slavery and Freedom.

* Producing tangible coursework (videos, presentations, mind maps, interactive web pages, montages, poetry, roleplays, podcasts and prose) which are shared with other schools, the media and policy makers.