Project Speak Up!

As of right now, 18.2 million girl children are enrolled in secondary education in India. Most of these girl have been fortunate enough because by the ages of 11-14, 67% of enrolled girl children have dropped out of schools across the country. Around 50% have discontinued their education to contribute to the household chores, a similar significant percentage due to financial constraints,  and most of all the Girls do not have a say in their future. 

Project Speak Up! intends to change this systemic gender discrimination by introducing an innovative Art meets tech project. The initiative uses a mobile app and a low tech solution simultaneously, with community activators and mentors to build negotiation skills, self advocacy  and a safe space through mentoring, storytelling and creative content. 

If scaled globally, this platform can impact more lives through stories and through the creation of a strong peer network.

In 2019, Child Right & You conducted a study that showed that there was a huge increase in dropouts of girl children from Primary to Secondary education and from Secondary to Senior Secondary education. The age groups of 11-14 years girl children saw a 67% drop out rate across the country. Between 2014-15, 18.2 million girl children were enrolled in secondary education but only 11.7 million enrolled in Senior secondary the following year. This disparity is also noticeable between primary education to secondary education as very few villages have only primary schools. And girls are rarely allowed to travel to another village for education. 

The systemic gender disparity in education stems from prescribed normative gender roles in the local context. This is further aggravated by various disablers namely 

 1. Individual Factors: lack of motivation/support

2. Household Factors : Financial constraints,  Family's disapproval, and most of all education is discontinued so that the girl child will look after all the household chores.

3. Systemic factors: Prescribed gender roles in the family for a girl child and family resources allocated for boy child, early/child marriages etc.

The project’s main objective is to teach young girls skills on how to negotiate educational aspirations with authority figures in their lives as well as develop social emotional learning through Art & Creativity.The project intends to facilitate this self-advocacy and joyful learning by introducing five interlinked project components:

1. Negoitiation curriculum: Speak Up! will develop tailored fit curriculum on negotiation and interpersonal communication. These curriculum inspired from Girls Arise campaign in Zambia, will be adapted into regional languages and for the Indian context. The lessons will comprise of short audio lessons  (stories/activities) of not more than 20 minutes.  
2. Technology: A mobile app, Speak Up!, will be developed for the girl child with a smartphone and a text based access with short audio clips for those with feature /basic phones. 
3. Mentoring: Each child will be assigned a safe person/mentor to help them discuss and learn more about the program
4. Socio emotional Learning: Introduction of SEL through the curriculum
5. Community activators: Selected members from Community based organizations (CBOs) or local Self-Help groups (SHG) will be involved in the execution of the project - liaising with the girls and their families.

The target beneficiaries for Project Speak Up! in its initial phases are girl children between the ages of 11-14 in the states of Delhi, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu, which will be followed up in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat.

Creative content will be tailored for each region. Even though various diagnostic research have already been done to assess the situation in regards to girl child drop outs, better understanding of each of the local context facilitates better negotiations and compromises towards educational aspirations. To cater to this, Community activators will be selected and each of them will work closely with the girl child and family, troubleshooting if any issues arise. The mobile app also has a feedback system which will give better understanding of the child’s development. 

Through the use of creative content such as stories, activities, and SEL frameworks, the mobile platform will engage students thoroughly while teaching them the importance of education for their interests and how to negotiate for these aspirations.  

The solutions through its five project components will prepare the child emotional and psychologically to slowly address her needs and be able to eke out a space for her goals and aspirations.

Project Speak Up! has its objective in tackling girl-child drop outs and entrenched gender-social norms through an innovative tech platform, creative content, and an interactive negotiation curriculum. These features and its mission succeeds in directly aligning the project to the theme (i.e., helping marginalized girls and young women access quality learning opportunities to succeed) and its dimension (i.e., Reducing barriers that prevent girls and young women from reaching key learning milestones).

In India, there have been numerous National and multi-lateral intervention in bringing quality education to the girl child. Most initiatives focus primarily on changing the social dynamics through Govt. policies, incentives and laws directed towards the family/community, along with infrastructure development. But the success of these initiatives also depend on the girl child developing an agency of their own and being able to negotiate/advocate for their rights.

Project Speak Up! Is innovative because it builds from previously successful model of Girls Arise in Zambia and employs the Key strengths of Nalandaway Foundation i.e., development of creative content, use of arts & creativity to employ SEL, and the importance it gives to child mental wellbeing. These components and key strengths disseminated on a mobile app platform as well as a basic phone brings innovation and learning right at the doorsteps. This solution will also have community activators and mentors who will play an essential role in the development of the child as well as cater to the success/monitoring of the project.

The solution makes use of a mobile app for the girl child with a smartphone and a text based access with short audio clips for those with feature phones. The mentor is provided with a mobile app to address queries of the girl child and act as a help line.

The mobile app based use case comprises of short audio-video lessons of about 20 minutes. Each lesson will be made of stories and activities. Assessments with multiple choice questions (MCQ) follow each lesson to ensure learning has happened.  Branching to a more detailed learning path with additional modules can be redirected for slower learners.  Outcome effectiveness is measured in monthly feedback using surveys during and after the completion of the course on the app.

The SMS text-based-access use case will have 2-3 minute audio lessons delivered as SMS links to a feature phone and can be accessed over low data bandwidth.  MCQ Assessments and surveys are achieved by the use of 2-way SMS methods.

While the course modules are accessed or delivered by a server based software listener application, the child can post queries on the app or send an SMS to a standard system which are addressed by a mentor and received over similar delivery channels.   

Content and Audio clips will be provided in several native languages.

Evidence for the Technology Solution

Use of Mobile Apps for delivering content has been employed in several instances widely available in the public domain. Use of SMS based methods has been employed most recently in the Rising-On-Air initiative showcased by World Bank in Liberia and Sierra Leone (1)

Mobile Apps for the solution would be built by standard tools such as Android Studio for the Child App. Cross platform tools such as Xamarin are used for the Mentor App (2).

Server application listener services are developed by employing popular platforms such as MS.NET (3). 

Use 2-way SMS APIs for Assessments and Surveys are available across popular providers (4)

Media delivery for the audio/video content would leverage open platforms such as Google YouTube.

1. Rising-On-Air on World Bank 

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/edutech/brief/how-countries-are-using-edtech-to-support-remote-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic

1. Xamarin Free. Cross-platform. Open source.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/xamarin

1. .NET is a free, cross-platform, open source developer platform.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/learn/dotnet/what-is-dotnet

(4) Two way SMS API (one such provider)

https://www.textlocal.in/receive-sms-online/

Project Speak Up! is an innovative Art meets Tech program that utilizes the digital platform and learning through art to teach negotiation skills for girls. These skills are imperative in building a culture of self expression and fostering strategic cooperation between parents and daughters, leading daughters to ask for more investment and to reciprocate in return. The problem that solution attempts at tackling is the drop-out rates of Girls in secondary education. This problem is compounded by socially pervasive gender norms, caste/class system and financial constraints. 

Our key demographic is the girl child between the ages of 11-14 in the states of Delhi (NCR), Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The entry point to reach our target audience would be Government run and trust run educational institutions. The following steps will be taken to ensure all project outcomes are met: 

1. Baseline survey/diagnostic study
2. Development and refining negotiation curriculum along with creative content such as videos, adios, inter-actvities such as games, puzzles etc. 
3. Coordination with school for intervention, orientation programs, and digital literacy programs
4. Creating a team (and Coaching) of community activators and mentors
5. Development and pre-testing of behavioral outcome measures - SEL
6. School partnership development for implementation of the solution
7. Development/Dissemination of Mobile app, Speak Up! And its text based solution 
8. Promotional activities 

The measurable outcomes and effects of these activities are as follows: 

1. Development of key findings from the studies and the consequent publications.  
2. A customizable negotiation curriculum specifically designed for the Indian context
3. Deeper collaboration and partnership with other NGOs, Govt. agencies, academic institutions and Ministry of Education
4. Improved pyscho-social-emotional health of the target beneficiaries 
5. Improved negotiation skills of the beneficiaries will have qualititaive outcome such as  perseverance, handwork and understanding importance of  longer-term school attainment. 

These outcome will have wider impacts namely: 

1. Inclusion of SEL, negotiations and art education in the national education frameworks 
2. Spillover effects such as improved health by making girls understand various health risks, increased health risks/decreased opportunities from early marriages, improved nutrition through midday meals vis-a-vis school attendance, development of quicker learning through creative aids. 

The project builds on Girls Arise! Zambia.https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pu...

The average annual drop out rate for a girl child in 2015 stood at 16.9%.  The bandwidth of the current project team is small and the solution is at a conceptual stage. The solution will be required to create regional and age specific content as well as ensure each student has access to some form of mobile communication device, with India having over 121 major languages and 1500 dialects/other languages the magnitude of the problem vis-a-vis the solution is enormous. 

However, Nalandaway Foundation hopes to bring out the solution in a well phased manner to cater to the large number of beneficiaries. In the first phase, the project will focus on two regions of India namely Delhi NCR (national Capital region including parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh) and Tamil Nadu. The target beneficiaries for the first phase within the ages of 11-14 that the project will be able to reach out to numbers of 5000 direct beneficiaries and 25,000-30,000 indirect beneficiaries.   

The second phase of the project will undertake a revamp in the content, translation into other languages/dialects and build of ground personnel in the target sites. This phase will include more states in its operation, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana. The total estimate of the intervention within the first five years would reach out to over 100,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries. This will be measured in terms of mobile app usage, direct intervention and dissemination of negotiation curriculum/creative content.

The main outcome that the Nalandaway Foundation wants to realize within the next year is the immediate decrease in the drop out rates as well as an increase in dialogue around the importance of a girl’s agency in choosing her future aspirations. 

Given more time and resources to the project/solution, the Foundation hopes to integrate the project concept and framework into mainstream educational policies with the help of Govt. agencies and multi-lateral institutions. The application of the proof of concept will urge the education departments, local governments and funding agencies to give a second glance into the importance of A. Tech/digital solutions in development projects 

B. Building women and girls’s agency and decision making power through negotiation skills 

C. Arts and creativity in leveling the gap and providing safe space

D. Creating a network of like minded peers, mentors and supporters to bring about positive change and mental wellbeing 

The Foundation plans to implement Project Speak up! and produce informative proof of concept and evidentiary support which will later be presented to interested stakeholders in the education sector. The Foundation already has good networks/partnerships with NGOs, and Delhi as well as Tamil Nadu State Governments. National Stakeholders conferences as well as seminars will be held to showcase the solutions effectiveness and conducting further projects in government run/trust run schools with the stakeholders’ support.

The Solver Team has taken into account the various issues that may crop up as barriers/challenges in delivering the project. They are as follows:

1. There will be challenges around identifying all eligible girls in secondary education and difficulties from respective households to obtain consent and implement the project. 
2. There will be a pushback from the community in introducing the challenge as it can upset the status quo, where women even girl children are expected to do strenuous household chores or get married early. 
3. There will also be difficulties in the application of the project as most families have only one phone and access to it is generally prohibited to women/girl child. 

Nalandaway Foundation has extensive experience working with youth, their families and education. The team will be undertaking the following steps to ensure that we overcome each difficulty, they are: 

1. Resource mobilization: The team will work with its field volunteers and community leaders, schools as well as govt. agencies to collate correct data and do a proper survey to ensure that all requirements are met.  

2. Orientation and mobilization: To decrease hostility from parents and communities, the team will organize orientation workshops through its art initiative such as music, performance, and theaters/plays. This will generate interest among parents which will help in breaking the ice. After which the team will work with local community leaders and chosen community activators as well as mentors to implement the project efficiently

3. The team has devised a mobile app platform, Speak Up! as well as text based service which is data efficient. The latter will ensure that all children from various socio-economic starts are covered. In some cases, community activators will be request to facilitate the dialogue between girl child and parents helping them to understand the importance of the project. 

The Solution team comprises of 7 in-house staff and several other professional consultants. The solution will have around 30-50 volunteer mentors initially and 30 community activators. The following are the main solutions team who will undertake day to day operations: 

• Sriram V Ayer - Programme management
• Sai Sudha - Content development
• Deepika Rajagopalan - Content development
• Rajagopalan - Project management
• Patrick Matthews - Technology development 
• Associates - 2 full time staff

The Nalandaway Foundation has over 17 years of experience in working with children through Art and creativity. The team is also comprised of technical experts in their respective fields.
1. Sriram Ayer is a renown social entrepreneur who has been working in the sector for around 2 decades. Named by the Outlook Business magazine as one of the top 50 social entrepreneurs in India, he has received numerous awards, including the World Bank’s development marketplace award, “Architect of the future” by Waldzell Institute, Ashoka Fellowship and the Millennium Award for Innovation in Education instituted by US AID, Govt. of India, and FICCI. He is also the author of the much acclaimed novel “The Story of a Suicide.”

2. Sai Sudha has a graduate degree in school of social work and community development. She is also certified by Tata School of Social Sciences in Design Thinking for education as well as Applied buddhist Psychology. 

3. Deepika Rajapgolpan is a writer, educator and budding film critic. She holds a Post Graduate degree in Education and has experience in content development. 

4. Rajagopalan Venkatramanis a computer science engineer and has over twenty-four years of experience in the IT industry with expertise in program management and delivery.

5. Patrick works for Ibhar Technologies, as the Head of Research & Development. He has been involved in new technology research and product architecture design at Ibhar since 1996. Patrick is the co-founder of NalandaWay Foundation and heads the technology initiatives of the Trust.

The Nalandaway Foundation currently partners with Department of Education, Women and Child Development, and various State Governments on Access to school girls, drop outs, permissions and logistics support. UNICEF currently supports Nalandaway in terms of Technical training and Funding. We also partner with CITIES RISE, NYC (for Technical support, Monitoring and evaluation study), HCL, Millenium alliance and other Local Community based organisations.

Project Speak Up! is an innovative mobile platform and text based solution to curb drop out rates of Girl children in various districts and states of India. It implements a B2B model by directly reaching out to end-users via the app as well as text based platform. It also initiates a community mobilization effort along with a volunteering platform. 

This project opens itself up to various stakeholders namely,
corporates, public entities, government, non-profits and social enterprises who can also be partners through financial, technical and administrative support. The formal partnerships include project Speak up! implementing the entire program with its technology, creative content and negotiation training modules while the supporting institutions get visibility and good optics. A CSR model will be followed in it promotionals for those who support the program. 

Additionally, a mentoring volunteer platform will be made available to those who would like to undertake paid internships/volunteering programs abroad after due vetting process. 

Thus, the project in regards to the business model will depends on 

1. CSR funds

2. Seed grant and Scaling up/extension grants

3. Subscription based volunteering program 

As a not-for-profit organisation that has its core mission in delivering quality education through art and creativity to marginalized communities, Nalandaway Foundation can only operate with the generous donations, funds and grants from corporates, institutions and agencies that share the same mission as well as endeavor to contribute back to society. 

The initial investment in regards to the development of content and the platform as well as all project activities tentatively stands at $65,000 USD. With added monitoring and evaluation, as well as yearly maintenance of the app/text platform will amount to $15000 USD. The sustainability of the project depends on the following components:

1. Initial Funding arrangements: Project Speak Up! hopes to attain the initial investment through MIT solve so as to use the seed funding to launch the project an all its components.

2. Partnerships with Corporates: Post the initial investment and implementation, the Foundation will reach out to its core partners for support in terms of technical, financial and scaling up.  

3. Partnerships with the Govt.: With proven evidentiary support, the Team will leverage its connection with state governments to financially undertake a portion or all of the project while Solver team remains the implementing/tech partner.  

4. Extension Grants: The Team will also look out for extension grants that offer continuous support to innovative and scalable projects. 

The vision of Nalandaway greatly resonates with MIT Solve's core values i.e., human centric solution, innovation & creativity, and real world impact. These core values drive our Foundation towards networking and partnering with organisation that share our same tenets. 

We believe that a partnership with MIT-Solve will help us step on to a better platform to engage with organisation that has the same mission as us and create a convergence of initiatives rather than working in silos. 

The information-knowledge network as well as technical efficiency that MIT has will help the Nalandaway Team to tackle the various Barriers in project implementation.

Nalandaway Foundation seeks to connect with organizations and institutions that can support our endeavors through technology, financial assistance and groundbreaking curriculum design.

1. Business model: We require creative and informative inputs towards creating a sustainable business model that will cater to all our project components.
2. Solution technology:  We require additional feedback on our tech platform so as to cater to various personas and needs of the beneficiaries.
3. There is a needs to have consistent funding to show adequate results on the ground, and as such we need support in fundraising and creating a robust revenue model.
4. Findings from the project is essential to creating intelligent reports that would contribute towards education policies. Thus, partners experienced in M&E are crucial.
5. Marketing exposure: we have a tall mission in reaching out to over a million girl students in secondary education in India. Without adequate media and exposure, the project will not succeed.  

We would like to partner with the following organizations: 

1. Skoll Foundation

2. The Rockefeller Foundation

3. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

4. google.org/ google arts for culture 

5. Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

6. The atlassian Foundation 

7.Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

8. Aga Khan Foundation 

9. Bil;ateral/Multilaterals such as USAID/UNESCO/World Bank

10. Vodafone Americas Foundation 

The aforementioned partners will be crucial in the implementation of the project in terms of funding, monitoring and evaluation, implementation and as a tech partner. Furthermore, MIT faculty involved in design thinking, Learning & Education, and developing UX/UI in various platforms will be crucial to Project Speak Up!