Delivering Transformative EdTech Across Sub-Saharan Africa

MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF Mar. 9, 2026

This Meeting at a Glance:

Program: Delivering Transformative EdTech Across Sub-Saharan Africa

Speaker: Joe Wolf

Is this your first time visiting us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday, our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!

To properly attend this meeting, please:

  1. Read and watch the content below in its entirety.

  2. Complete the attendance survey.

Everyone is encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.


Greetings Members, Rotarians, Friends and Guests:

Want to Learn More About Us? - Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It

Want to become a Rotarian? - Join us in helping to make the world a better place!


Thanks for joining our weekly meeting!


Steve Munns- Club Member


WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS

We get a good laugh from Shags' Weekly Funny

We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!

My mom drinks Diet Coke despite knowing full well of the repercussions to her health.

You might say she's a sodamasochist.



Inspiration

This week's program is about a promising effort in sub-Saharan Africa to deal with severe teacher shortages and classroom overcrowding. See what you think in this week's inspirational video, and leave a comment in the Disqus section after watching the program!


LEARN SOMETHING NEW

Plastic is Ubiquitous!

A Surprisingly Easy Way to Remove Microplastics From Your Drinking Water




Are you receiving the Members Only Weekly Bulletin?

Our Club News and Member links are now on the Members Only ClubRunner Site and are emailed weekly as a Club Bulletin. Please make sure your email address is current on ClubRunner.

Members, be sure to read our Weekly Club Bulletin, which is sent separately to your email address from ClubRunner each Monday. In it, you will find updates and information about what our members are up to, club activities, projects, Happy Dollars, news from District 5170, and various ways you can support The Rotary Foundation. We also send your Dues notices using ClubRunner email.

Our Weekly Bulletin, sent every Monday, provides club information. To stay informed, please ensure your email is current on ClubRunner and add mailservice@clubrunner.ca to your address book so it does not go into Spam.


PROGRAM: Delivering Transformative EdTech Across Sub-Saharan Africa

SPEAKER: Joe Wolf

We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.

Imagine Worldwide's goal is to solve the literacy and numeracy crisis for millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa. Foundational learning is the key to unlocking a child’s potential -- improving their health, wealth, and social outcomes -- and these improvements extend to future generations.

With nearly half of global youth being African by 2030, the urgency to find a scalable learning solution is paramount. Imagine Worldwide partners with philanthropists, governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that operates offline and is solar-powered, making it accessible, effective, and affordable. Their model is massively scalable, research-based, and has an unparalleled cost/benefit ratio. Imagine Worldwide works to harness innovation, government commitments, and highly-targeted philanthropy to catalyze exponential impact for millions of the world's most underserved children.

Here's a short video introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hi1U_-6Xko

Our speaker, Joe Wolf, is Co-CEO and Co-founder of Imagine Worldwide. Joe is passionately committed to eliminating global educational inequity through scalable solutions and he has dedicated the past decade of his career to launching, supporting, and leading educational philanthropies and nonprofit organizations. Joe co-founded Imagine to help all children achieve the foundational literacy and numeracy skills they need to achieve their full potential. Imagine serves some of the world's most marginalized children.

Joe co-founded The Learning Accelerator and Open Up Resources, two highly successful nonprofits focused on innovation and equity in the U.S. K-12 market. He has also served on the boards of the Clayton Christensen Institute, NPX Advisors, Summer Search, New Classrooms, and the New Schools Venture Fund. Joe is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School. He has three school-aged children, is a mountain biker and meditator, and loves all things in the natural world. Joe is based in California, USA.

Members and guests, please welcome Joe Wolf!

To learn more, go to:

Learn more about Imagine Worldwide on our website:
https://imagineworldwide.org

Watch this overview video about Imagine Worldwide and our work in Malawi:
https://bit.ly/4e6yzPU

To learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to:
http://rotary.cool


A Banner featuring our 3 PodCast Series: Inspiring People, Inspiring Solutions, and Inspiring Women

Our Three Podcast Series

Our main program speakers are available as podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week, they are available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as many other platforms.

Our weekly podcast is now called:

Inspiring People - Stories of Innovation and Service

Inspiring Solutions for a Better World

Our original podcast, featuring some of the best of our previous speakers, is still available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.

 Inspiring Women: Celebrating Trailblazers

Our newest podcast celebrates trailblazing women. It is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.


UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE

All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.

Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).

If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.


THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY

Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.

We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.

Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeup.

Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.

For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!

Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!

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