Mo Salah isn't your regular athlete, he's a UNHCR ambassador now

Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah's philanthropic efforts are shaping up to be just as impressive as his football feats. The star was announced as the first Ambassador for Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR's Instant Network Schools on Tuesday. 

The initiative's schools connect "refugee and host-country students to a quality digital education," with an aim to do so by providing this service to 500,000 students by 2025.

Salah agreed to take on the role at a time when the network is launching 20 new schools and gearing up to expand into the football legend's home country. 

As an ambassador, the Liverpool forward will visit schools supported by the program to help raise awareness "of the need and importance of quality education for refugee children."

Salah expressed his excitement over joining in on efforts to help secure proper education for refugee children. 

"I'm partnering with Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR to close the gap between the education available to refugees and their peers living in settled communities," he said in a statement. 

"Instant Network Schools is an important initiative that I am proud to represent which is transforming learning for a generation of young people across sub-Saharan Africa and soon also in my home country, Egypt," he added. 

The school network was set up in 2013 in a joint venture launched by Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR. It aims to give young refugees and their teachers access to digital learning content and the internet in order to improve the quality of education in some of Africa's most marginalized communities. 

At the time being, there are 36 Instant Network Schools in operation across eight refugee camps located in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. Since its launch, the initiative has benefited more than 86,500 students and 1,000 teachers. 

Salah is widely known and lauded for his charity work and never misses a chance to give back. 

Last year, he donated $3 million to Egypt's National Cancer Institute (NCI) after the center sustained damages in a terrorist attack. In 2018, the star paid $450,000 to kickstart a project ensuring that people in his hometown, Basyoun, will get major supplies of clean water.

The footballer holds his hometown close to his heart and spares no effort towards bettering it as a community. In previous years, he built a local religious institution where children can study; he paid forward a donation towards building nursery facilities in the town.

The legend's generosity didn't stop at that, though, as he is also known to have donated nearly $300,000 to the Egyptian government when his country's economy was ailing back in 2017.