MyMadrasa

Inspiration

Syrian girls living in refugee camps lack access to schools in host countries, due to local regulations, language barriers, costs, the risk of being sexually assaulted on the commute. As a result, their families pressure them to marry early and they end up experiencing poor reproductive health and poverty. At the same time, an opportunity presents itself: many refugee families have smartphones, and aid agencies are setting up more wifi access across camps. By leveraging this, I can make an educational app that allow girls to gather in the camp and study together.

What it does

"MyMadrasa" app runs on Android and iOS smartphones. It offers courses in math, reading, writing, speaking communication in Arabic, English and host country languages, specifically:

text, audio and animations to illustrate math/language concepts while performing on limited bandwidth
offline AI grading of math and writing assignments
online volunteers worldwide to give feedback on writing and verbal communication

Everyday morning, Haya, Reem and other girls gather in the camp. Today, they learned how to calculate the area of a polygon, and how to write a greeting letter in English, through text, audio and animation instructions. Then they work on their homework together, which is one problem of calculating the area of a polygon and a letter in English. When they finish, they submit their homework by taking pictures of what they write on paper, the app grades the math answers and correct grammatical errors and typos. Haya and Reem also uploaded their writing assignments online, and English speaking volunteers worldwide will write back to them, and offer feedback on their English. They feel excited to see what the volunteers will write back.

How I built it

A demo app is built using Java in Android Studio, to illustrate the above features.

Challenges I ran into

Bandwidth is limited in camps, so I need to find a lower-bandwidth solution than video instructions.
Learning is challenging without a teacher, soon kids get beyond simple things like 1+1, so I thought of having remote volunteers to give feedback.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I thought it's not necessary to replicate the traditional curriculum, as long as girls learn the fundamental skills that will enable them to self-study, they'll be ok later even if they are short on knowledge right now.