CHALLENGE STATEMENT
RESEARCH PHASE
Our research included interviews, observations, and second-hand accounts -- blogs, academic articles, news articles.
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We used whiteboarding sessions to consolidate our findings in the field. During this session, we were able to identify:
- People and groups that touch a refugee's life.
- Functional aspects such as infrastructure, nutrition, and language barriers that affect a refugee's access to education.
- Emotional aspects such as trauma, anxiety, and pessimism for the future that affect a refugee's ability to learn.
While we were expanding upon the people who touch refugee lives, we discovered a large group of 'peripherals' who were being underutilized.
People who are outside the geographical area of refugee camps and host nations are actually very aware of the crisis, and many of them are willing to lend their expertise to creating educational materials. However, a dearth of salient information about the educational needs of the camp means teachers are at a loss as to what materials they should create.
Another major discovery was that refugee camp dynamics are not conducive to diverse learning. Children who are thrust into public schools in the host nation face many obstacles, but most importantly, they are not given the opportunity to pursue activities outside the most basic lessons.
They lack sports teams, which are essential in helping children develop a sense of camraderie, and fine arts education, which is essentially theraputic to young minds dealing with trauma.
PERSONA - Based on research and whiteboard sessions, we were able to create a persona of someone we want our solution to help.
POTENTIAL SOLUTION - Thanks to our insights into the major challenges to education in refugee camps, we came to understand that a potential solution would require improving communication between the camps and resources outside the perimeter.
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The main purpose of this solution is a strong feedback loop between camp and resources.
We hope it will:
- Constantly improve assessments gathered by orgs in-camp
- Constantly provide resources with immediate, short-term, and long-term educational needs of the refugees
- Encourage experts to lend their talent to provide diverse materials -- steps to create a sports team, fine arts instruction, therapy
- Constantly improve assessments gathered by orgs in-camp
- Constantly provide resources with immediate, short-term, and long-term educational needs of the refugees
- Encourage experts to lend their talent to provide diverse materials -- steps to create a sports team, fine arts instruction, therapy
- Encourage citizens to interact with refugees in their own nation and outside, and open up a dialogue about the crisis.
