Computer Aid International, in partnership with Dell, has launched a Dell Solar Community Hub in San Mateo Atenco, Mexico City.

Mexico City is dense urban area with large parts of the population living in vulnerable communities (C-, D & E Mexican socioeconomic classes are below the urban poverty line). The youth living in these areas have been traditionally served by the public education system and therefore in most cases, they are deprived of a good quality education and access to new technology and much-needed ICT skills to compete with more privileged youth from private schools in other areas of the city. The socio-economic gap is still hindering the change of many of the youth in the city.

Our aim is to run the Solar Community Hub at the Escuela Benito Juarez Elementary School located in the Reforma district; this will not only impact the students at the school but will also benefit the whole community by giving them access to quality learning experiences promoting STEM subjects & ICT for children and youth. We seek to promote not only ICT and STEM subjects, but also 21st century skills and abilities that the global economy will require from Mexican youth in the years to come. Within the lab, we will be teaching the children and adults in groups of 20; they will study ICT and robotics, programming, mechanics and other available courses such as: entrepreneurship, coding, servers maintenance and English to name a few.

The educational model of Robotix goes beyond teaching technical skills, because it will allow children and young people to learn, identify and solve real life problems while having fun. The project will use the Solar Learning Lab to enable the delivery of the Robotix curriculum, an innovative methodology and deliver Life Skills for up to 5520 students.

This project contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

	Our work contributes directly to Target 4.1 of SDG 4, by improving secondary school educational outcomes for boys and girls. Additionally, students are gaining relevant technical skills that will improve their job prospects, contributing to Target 4.4.
	This project directly contributes to Target 5.B of SDG 5, since we select schools who have a similar ratio of girls to boys and actively promote the usage of equipment by both genders, ensuring that no individual is excluded.
	By providing 10 secondary schools with computer labs and assistive technology such as projectors, allowing thousands of students to access information and communications technology, we are directly contributing to Target 9.C of SDG 9.
	ICT Equipment used in projects is donated largely from companies; equipment is data-wiped and refurbished before being sent to projects. Therefore, this project is directly contributing to Target 12.5 from SDG 12, by reducing e-waste and allowing technology to be reused.

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