The Future is Offline
Making MOOCs and e-learning available through SD cards to young refugees that lack connectivity. A 2019 MIT SOLVE winner, The Future is Offline is a collaboration between Libraries without Borders and Kiron.
Project: The Future is Offline
Country: Global
Partner : Libraries without Borders, KIRON
More than 2 million refugees are at the age of attending tertiary education (between 16 and 24 years old). Most of them attended high school and were forced to drop out of university or vocational training because they had to flee their country. Only 1 in 100 refugees now has access to higher education.
Despite tremendous talent and existing qualifications, young refugees face numerous obstacles when enrolling in universities: language barriers, lack of degree recognition, and financial resources.
Technologies open up learning opportunities through MOOCs. But more than 50% of refugees do not have access to the Internet. In rural areas, only 22% of refugees are connected. And when they are, their connectivity is often very poor.
Project Description
Libraries Without Borders (LWB) and Kiron are partnering to provide offline access to digital learning for refugees.
Providing individual offline access to MOOCs and certificates from the world’s top universities using SD cards.
Equipping collective learning spaces with local servers uploaded with MOOCs:
groups of learners can gather in learning spaces and connect to these servers to access MOOCs.
Generation of Innovation Leaders Program (GIL)
Lebanon: In this project, youth are introduced to STEM topics, such as robotics, at events hosted at Innovation Labs or externally. Once participants have identified potential interests, subject-specific training is offered for free at the Innovation Labs. With the support of GIL mentors and partners, participants turn their new skills and ideas into income-generating activities.
Project: Generation of Innovation Leaders Program (GIL)
Country: Lebanon
Partner: UNICEF
Since the onset of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Lebanon has hosted a disproportionately large number of refugees. With an ongoing influx of Palestinian refugees as well, Lebanon’s total refugee population now amounts to more than 1.5 million – one quarter of the total population. Inequity and vulnerabilities are exacerbated within refugee communities. Among Syrian refugees, 74% of people aged 15 and older lack legal residency and 60% of households live under the extreme poverty line. These multi-dimensional disadvantages impact children’s lives in the long-term, denying them access to the education needed to join an evolving workforce.
UNICEF’s programming in Lebanon focuses on children and young people in the second decade of life, to address this skills deficit. Through our Generation of Innovation Leaders (GIL) program, we equip the most vulnerable young people in Lebanon with the skills they need to innovate and solve the greatest problems facing their communities, while also generating income.
Project Description
This project will support over 12’000 youth in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian Camp, the rural communities of Hrar and Wadi in Akkar, and the Baalbak region close to the Syrian border. The project is done with the local partners Injaz, Nawaya Network, and Dot Lebanon.
The GIL journey for youth is delivered in three stages:
Discovery
Youth are introduced to STEM topics, such as robotics, at events hosted at Innovation Labs or externally. Workshops, tutorials, and contact with industry leaders allow participants to discover new skills and areas of interest.
Skills Development
Once participants have identified potential interests, subject-specific training is offered for free at the Innovation Labs. Participants move beyond the theoretical, learning to apply their new skills and knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Access to Market & Resources
With the support of GIL mentors and partners, participants turn their new skills and ideas into income-generating activities. This can be through launching a new business or finding employment using the skills gained from GIL.
The Hero Scholarship
The Hero Scholarship was developed and granted by the Andan Foundation in Antigua and Barbuda following the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in September 2017, which left a large portion of the islands’ population displaced.
Project: The Hero Scholarship
Implemented by: The Andan Foundation
Country: Antigua and Barbuda
The Hero Scholarship was developed and granted by the Andan Foundation in Antigua and Barbuda following the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in September 2017, which left a large portion of the island’s population displaced. The scholarship program is promoted by the Halo Foundation in collaboration with St. Mary’s University in Canada.
The Hero Scholarships aim to ease the financial barrier to tertiary-level education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are academically talented and who deserve special recognition for their humanitarian acts of bravery and kindness. The scholarships are therefore bestowed upon deserving youths for their commitment to the community and their dedication to humanitarian causes.
Successful students receive full scholarships in their chosen discipline — inclusive of tuition, accommodation, meals, university-related fees, medical insurance, and textbooks — at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada.
Andan now plans to extend this initiative to refugees in other countries to promote a new community of ‘heroes’ — young change-makers able to contribute to their regions’ ongoing development and success.
The CHAMS Coding School
This project will train refugees in Middle Eastern camps to become coders and to promote their employability in both local and international markets. The innovation lies in the methodologies that do not require students to have any prior digital skills or programing experience, but instead select participants purely on the basis of ability and motivation.
Project: The CHAMS Coding School
Country: Jordan
Partner: Chams Foundation
In Jordan, more than 36% of the youth is unemployed. The unemployment situation is especially critical for Syrian refugees who live in Jordan. Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Jordan has welcomed a large number of refugees who can’t easily access the job market. Digital work is perfectly suited to address the challenge of employment both for Syrians refugees and Jordanians. The demand for coding experts is growing in the Jordanian economy, and it enables flexible work conditions (as digital work can be done remotely only by using a computer and a good internet connection).
The immediate goal of the project is the training of refugee coders in Middle Eastern camps to promote their employability in both local and international markets. This will be achieved through innovative methodologies that do not require students to have any prior digital skills or programming experience but instead select participants purely based on ability and motivation. The first pilot program will take place in Jordan. Chams’ broader ambition is to extend this training to more refugee camps around the globe, promoting refugee employability by offering certified professional training and job placements for young people from 17 to 25 years old.
Project Description
The project has been developed and implemented by the Chams Foundation in partnership with Al al-Bayt University and UNHCR in Amman, Jordan. The pilot project will address three target groups: refugees living in Zaatari Camp (25%), refugees living in the Mafraq region (25%), and Jordanians (50%).
The training will be designed in two parts:
Web Development Skills
The core of the training program will be to allow participants to develop software & technology expertise.
Soft Skills
20% of the training program will be implemented by partners or ourselves through modules, interventions, pitches, etc. on useful or necessary basic knowledge and matters.
The pilot project aims at training 30 young coders (Syrians and Jordanians) as well as accompany them in their professional integration in the ICT sector. The end of this project is to provide a free and certified 7 months intense “coding” training program to members of the most vulnerable populations. Once this pilot project will be implemented, the plan is to expand in Jordan and other countries in the Middle East.
This pilot project will be the first step to developing more partnerships and replicating activities in order to train 10’000 young coders.
