The problem: Education displacement
Today, 262 million children don’t attend school, and 617 million children and adolescents can’t read or do basic math. This is especially a problem for poverty-stricken countries impacted by natural disasters.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO):
- The poorest children and youth in low-income countries are less than half as likely to complete primary school than the richest
- Children in rural areas are over twice as likely to be out of school than children living in urban areas in low-income countries
- Only 2% of the poorest girls in low-income countries complete upper secondary school
How do you teach children in such volatile environments?
“The Jara Unit is personal education device, which means each child gets their own. They could use it as a supplement to their classroom, or they could use it as a solution to being out of school and not being able to leave their homes, for example.”
Soraya Fouladi, Founder and CEO, Jara
The solution: The Jara Unit
Not only does the Jara Unit feature traditional subjects, such as math and science, but also teaches more practical skills, such as how to build a personal plumbing system with the resources in your local community.
The Jara Unit has been designed with disaster-stricken regions in mind. It is wireless, waterproof, durable, and consistently secure, with power coming from non-conventional, crank and solar sources.
The devices can communicate with each other, even in places with poor Internet connectivity or no Internet at all, through the hardware-to-hardware network connectivity.
Jara was the first runner-up in the 2018 Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, which recognizes entrepreneurs like Soraya who are using technology to address a social or environmental problem.
Your turn
See how Cisco is supporting other young social entrepreneurs like Soraya through the annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge.