Chery Spotlights US$12 Million UNICEF Education Partnership During UNGA Week
At UNGA week, Chery highlighted a UNICEF partnership that has committed US$12 million since 2023 to education programmes in six countries, from AI skills assessment in South Africa to bilingual literacy in Mexico.
- US$12 million
- 49,337 children
- 10,000 students across 568 pilot rural schools
- About 30 percent in writing, about 7 percent in reading
What Happened
During UNGA week, Chery Automobile highlighted how technology and innovation are supporting impact through its global partnership with UNICEF at a high-level meeting on the Learn AI Global Compact. Since 2023, the company has committed US$12 million to UNICEF's global education programmes across China, Mexico, South Africa, Türkiye, Indonesia and Viet Nam, helping children and young people gain the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Guided by the partnership tagline, Powering Every Child's Learning Journey, the collaboration is helping expand access to quality, equitable and inclusive education.
“Flexible private funding can be a real gamechanger. It helps turn innovation into long-term solutions, strengthens national education systems, and helps us scale what works.”
- South Africa: support for piloting an AI-powered skills assessment tool with the Ministry of Education, plus the rollout of the National Coding and Robotics Curriculum to embed future-ready skills into formal education.
- Viet Nam and Indonesia: initiatives that build digital, green and transferable skills, helping children and adolescents prepare for a rapidly evolving economy.
- China: STEM learning for children and adolescents in and out of school, including two gender-responsive, project-based STEM learning packages that reached 10,000 students, with equal participation of girls, across 568 pilot rural schools.
- Türkiye: helping children return to safe classrooms after the earthquakes and integrating recovery measures into the national education system so it can better withstand and respond to future emergencies.
- Mexico: a strategic focus on Guerrero, contributing to efforts to halve, by 2030, the number of children who cannot read and understand a simple text.
Ahead of UNGA week, Chery executives and colleagues from China and Mexico joined UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden and colleagues from UNICEF Mexico and UNICEF China on a visit to Guerrero, Mexico, to see how the global partnership translates into local action. The field visit offered an on-the-ground look at bilingual literacy programmes, learning recovery efforts, teacher training initiatives and learning camps. In Guerrero, bilingual literacy models are being implemented for Indigenous students in first and second grades, using materials and methodologies designed to strengthen reading and writing in both their mother tongue and Spanish.
- Improved by approximately 30 percent
- Improved by approximately 7 percent
Chery has committed US$12 million to UNICEF's global education programmes across China, Mexico, South Africa, Türkiye, Indonesia and Viet Nam.
Learning Camps in Guerrero have benefited 49,337 children; in the most recent cycle, participants improved by an average of 10 percent in reading and 14 percent in mathematics.
Chery executives from China and Mexico joined UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden and UNICEF Mexico and China colleagues on a field visit to Guerrero, Mexico.
Chery highlighted its UNICEF partnership at a high-level meeting on the Learn AI Global Compact.
The partnership's focus will remain on scaling up effective approaches, from coding curricula to bilingual literacy programmes.
Why this matters
The story shows how a fast-growing automaker ties its overseas expansion to community investment in the markets where it sells, a stance Chery sums up in its operating philosophy: In Somewhere, For Somewhere, Be Somewhere. The programmes reach children and schools in China, Mexico, South Africa, Türkiye, Indonesia and Viet Nam, and Chery says the partnership is about more than a corporate social responsibility initiative.
Terms in This Story
- UNGA
- The United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering of UN member states in New York where world leaders meet and discuss global issues.
- STEM
- An acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the subjects often grouped together in education programmes.
- CSR
- Corporate social responsibility: a company's efforts to contribute to society and communities beyond its core business activities.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.