Partnering with Microsoft & Facebook to bridge education gap and teach Syrian child refugees using digital technology
Syrian refugee children (outside of formal education) use the Tabshoura digital platform to learn
Today, on the occasion of the Global Disability Summit, the UK Government became the first major donor of its kind to explicitly pledge support for family and community-based care for all children.
Championing families and not orphanages, Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt, announced: “Orphanages are harmful to children and it is often those with disabilities who are placed in them the most. This needs to end, which is why I’m committed to the long-term plan to ensure all children grow up with a family of their own.”
An NGO alliance including Hope and Homes, Lumos, Save the Children and World Vision - have joined forces to echo the UK Government’s commitment and support global change for children trapped in orphanages, especially those with disabilities who are the furthest left behind. The launch ofthe new ‘Civil Society Compact [CSO Compact]’ sets out a pathway for change to help eliminate orphanages worldwide.
“Recognising that institutionalisation harms children – and that children with disabilities are overrepresented in institutions –we commit to work together toward eliminating the institutionalisation of children globally. Ensuring our organisations do not contribute towards the institutionalisation of children, directly or indirectly - and in line with international treaties and best practice, we share the UK Government’s pledge to enable all children to have the opportunity to realise their right to family care.”
World Vision is a proud signatory to the CSO Compact, which is set out in full below.
Now is the time for other governments, funders, companies and individuals to follow suit and invest in alternatives to orphanages so all children can thrive in families.
CSO COMPACT
Recognising that institutionalisation harms children’s physical, emotional, psychological and psychosocial development, the undersigned organisations pledge to work toward the end of institutionalization of children and for the promotion of family-based care.
The occasion of the first Global Disability Summit makes this a particularly appropriate moment for this commitment, since children with disabilities are often the first to enter an institution and the last to leave.
In-line with international treaties and best practice, including the UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we share the UK Government’s pledge to enable all children to have the opportunity to realise their right to family care and, in accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development, commit to leave no child behind in this effort.
We are committed to ensuring our organisations do not, either directly or indirectly, contribute towards the institutionalisation of children. We are also committed to coordinating our activities and resources to maximise our collective efforts to support the transition to family and community-based care worldwide. Specifically, we commit to coordinating around six key themes:
Raising awareness and understanding in a way that stops the flow of funding and resources in support of orphanages and other types of institutions, and helping to redirect this support to family and community-based solutions. We will also seek to influence our partners, supporters and donors to work in a coordinated way to do the same.
Encouraging the integration of child protection and care services with health and education support in order to promote family-based care and ensure that the wide-ranging needs of children with disabilities and their carers are met.
Advocating with decision-makers - international and national - to prevent the placement of children into institutions, and to ensure that legislation and policy are always derived from a locally developed evidence base on how to best combat the key drivers of institutionalisation.
Investing in (whether financial or in-kind) local partner capacity – civil society and local authorities – to effectively manage the transition from institutions to quality family and community-based care in ways that protect the rights of affected children.
Promoting the meaningful participation of children and young people - actively seeking out, listening to and acting on the views and opinions of the young people and children we work with, and where safe and appropriate to do so, giving them a platform to share their views and ideas more widely – paying particular attention to ensuring gender balance, and the inclusion of children with disabilities and other minority groups.
Researching and generating an evidence base about key issues such as:
· best practice interventions to address the key drivers of institutionalisation;
· the proliferation and poor quality of care in these institutions;
· ways to challenge the invisibility of children in institutions, especially children with disabilities;
· the most appropriate alternative care options for children who cannot live with their own biological family.
To achieve this we will work together to share our data, research findings, methodologies and support countries to gather better data and monitor outcomes for all children. In doing this we will seek to Increase the visibility and understanding of disability issues in children’s care and protection through wider research and routinely disaggregated data collection.
List of signatories
1. Save the Children UK
2. World Vision
3. Plan International UK
4. Human Rights Watch
5. Islamic Relief Worldwide
6. Disability Rights International
7. Hope and Homes for Children
8. Lumos
9. DeafKidz International
10. Home for Good
11. Better Care Network
12. Friends International
13. Chance for Childhood
14. HealthProm
15. Forget Me Not Australia
16. Next Generation Nepal
17. One Sky Foundation
18. Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
International children’s charity World Vision is partnering with Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Facebook and other tech companies to host the #EdTech summit on the 1st and 2nd March. The summit aims to inspire Syrian refugee children to harness the power of technology.
The UN estimates that the Syrian conflict – which enters its seventh year in March – has set back Syrian children’s education by a staggering 10 years. This summit will bring together the world’s top tech talent to find innovative ways to educate children whose lives have been devastated by war.
World Vision Lebanon, partner organisation Digital Opportunity Trust Lebanon (DOT) and Lebanese Alternative Learning Alliance, are already tackling the issue head on. Together they have pioneered the Tabshoura e-learning program for three-to-six year-olds. Using Moodle e-platform technology they have digitised the Lebanese school curriculum. A total of 2,350 educational activities including rhymes, short movies and flip books can now be accessed in Arabic, French and English for free.
The #EdTech summit is scheduled to take place in Amman, Jordan on the 1st and 2nd of March. It’s part of the No Lost Generation campaign, which aims to give refugee children an education that six years of Syrian war has denied them. Around 380,000 Syrian refugee children of school age are now living in Lebanon, but less than 50% of primary school-aged children have access to public primary school, compared to the global average of 90%. Additionally, less than 4% of teenagers have access to secondary school.
Technology can provide cost effective and basic education to millions of refugee children who don’t have access to formal education. Countries like Lebanon and Jordan have sheltered millions of children. They are doing their best to support them, but there just isn’t the capacity to absorb them into the state school system. We believe that e-learning platforms can bridge that gap
We’re looking forward to getting the best brains in the room to thrash out technological solutions to improve education for children affected by the Syria crisis. There are some great thinkers with great ideas out there – and we need to harness this talent for the sake of students who just want to learn, but can’t because their classrooms have been bombed, their lives uprooted, and their chances in life potentially shattered as a result.
- Mark Chapple, a former teacher and World Vision’s #EdTech summit organiser
World Vision and DOT Lebanon created the innovative Tabshoura programme for nursery school children. The project trained teachers (or e-care givers) and children how to use digital technology. The programme offered structured learning to children who had no formal education.
One of Tabshoura’s trainee teachers Mazen Husseini, himself a Syrian refugee, said: “At the beginning, I was against the idea because I thought children this age couldn’t use computers well. In Syria, it’s rare for children to be using the computers at this age. But they do actually retain the information well from computers. It is much more effective than regular learning because the information is right in front of them with a click on a button.”
“The teachers were terrified at first,” said DOT Lebanon’s Bekaa valley manager Mariam Haidar. “The technology was new to them and they felt overwhelmed, but within weeks we saw great results. We had over a 100 nursery school kids attend the classes. They came three times a week without fail. Even though they had no computer skills at all in the beginning, they managed to master the usage of the mouse and Moodle functionality in a few sessions.
“For us digital trainers it was really exciting to see the children support one another. The children worked well together. And, early studies show that the Tabshoura e-platform users saw a 154% increase in test results. These findings are very encouraging,” Haidar added.
World Vision welcomes Priti Patel’s (Minister for International Development) call to, “develop and drive a radical jobs and education agenda… which will help vulnerable refugees.” With the support of tech entrepreneurs, we believe technology has a crucial role to play in getting children back into education and a step closer to the future they deserve.