Together, Giggle Academy and World Mobile are making education possible where it once wasn’t.
In Mombasa, Kenya, a small community school now serves as both a classroom and a network hub. World Mobile AirNodes bring internet to the school, while tablets loaded with Giggle Academy turn that connection into a digital classroom. Children who never had the chance to attend formal lessons are now exploring reading, math, and science through interactive, game-like activities that keep them engaged.
What is Giggle Academy?
Giggle Academy is a free online school launched in 2024 by Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, the founder of Binance. After stepping back from the exchange, he set out to build something with lasting social impact. His aim: give children who lack access to classrooms a fair chance to learn.
Giggle Academy is built around three core goals:
- Provide quality basic education to children everywhere, regardless of income or location.
- Keep lessons engaging with interactive content, rewards, and playful progress tracking.
- Adapt to each child’s pace and strengths, helping them grow in confidence as they learn.
The curriculum covers literacy, numeracy, science, finance, programming, and practical life skills. It is free, free of ads, and focused on reaching the children most often left behind.
In places where classrooms are missing or underfunded, Giggle Academy can provide the only structured path for children to read, count, and explore the world of knowledge.
How do Giggle Academy and World Mobile work together?
At Faith Junior Academy, World Mobile installed a satellite backhaul to bring reliable internet. They added an AirNode, a community-owned device that delivers last-mile connectivity. The school now has private internet for lessons and a public Wi-Fi access point for the village.
Students received tablets preloaded with Giggle Academy, giving them a playful way to learn English, literacy, and numeracy.
“We decided that the best thing for these kids was to install the AirNode on the rooftop, distribute tablets, enable the children to learn via Giggle Academy, and turn the school into the backbone of connectivity for the entire village.”
Micky Watkins, CEO, World Mobile
The school also earns revenue from hosting the AirNode. Community members pay for Wi-Fi, and part of that income goes back to the school. It helps cover electricity, buy more tablets, and support teachers. The program sustains itself without relying only on donations.
It’s a cycle that builds momentum: connectivity enables learning, learning creates opportunity, and opportunity strengthens the community.
After school, learning continues
When the school day ends, the building becomes a community space. Parents and older adults gather to use the same tablets for digital literacy and AI lessons. What begins as simple internet access grows into active participation in the digital world, opening new skills and opportunities for every generation.
Omar, a local advocate
Omar first came to the school curious about crypto. With a little guidance, he set up a wallet, bridged USDT, and learned how to cash out through M-Pesa. He repeated the process on his own, then began showing others how to do the same. One person learns, then teaches the next, and that’s how knowledge spreads across a community.
What’s next for Kenya
World Mobile’s work doesn’t stop at the classroom. In Kilifi, new projects with farmers will track harvests, improve logistics, and pay in stablecoins that can be exchanged for local currency. Local developers are already building healthcare apps designed to work in remote clinics, even offline. And soon, phone plans linked to WMTx staking will make internet access more affordable for everyday users.
It starts with connectivity, but grows into more
Andrew Soper, Co-Founder and Chief of Country Operations, says:
It’s not just about installing Wi-Fi. It’s about proving that communities can own and run these networks themselves, leapfrogging an entire village into the frontier of technological development.
One school. Imagine a thousand.
Faith Junior is just the beginning. One rooftop, one AirNode, one classroom turned into a gateway for an entire village. Now picture that multiplied across towns and villages, each connection lighting up new chances to learn, work, and grow.
What started in one schoolyard in Mombasa can become a blueprint for communities everywhere. Because when people are given the tools to connect, they build their own future.