PAXU®

Many impoverished migrant workers lack access to digital learning opportunities and reliable news sources, increasing their vulnerability to unscrupulous labor brokers and traffickers who promise them lucrative false jobs overseas. These workers often endanger themselves by undertaking precarious journeys, robbing them of their potential to contribute to their communities. 

PAXU® is a mobile application that promotes safe migration and increases access to opportunities in the 21st century for migrant workers by enabling them to 1) calculate more secure economic futures, 2) acquire new skills for advancement such as English (incorporating AI and eLearning), 3) build their digital literacy through microlearning, 4) evaluate employers and service providers. By providing access to reliable information and digital upskilling opportunities, migrant workers can build resilience and improve their economic prospects through PAXU®. 

PAXU® can be localized with curated content for other geographies, communities, and demographics for migrants’ experiences and cultures.   

Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry, estimated at $150 billion per year (ILO 2012) - devastating over 40 million people, their families, communities, and businesses worldwide. 71% of victims are women and girls (ILO and Walk Free Foundation 2017).

PAXU® aims to safeguard (potential) migrant workers from unsafe migration routes and getting ensnared in criminal trafficking networks. Globally, there are an estimated 164 million migrant workers (ILO 2018) on the move. In today’s globalized world, where fake news runs rampant on social media, disadvantaged individuals lack reliable information about employment opportunities and remain disconnected from safe networks. Job seekers are also dangerously uninformed about recruitment fees, debt repayment, living costs abroad, and forced labor risks. Thus, when deciding to migrate, job seekers are unable to make adequate risk assessments, leading to unsafe situations. These situations can include huge amounts of debt, debt bondage, forced labor, sexual exploitation, and even death.

PAXU® is a mobile application designed to reduce migrant workers’ trafficking risks, connect them to digital upskilling opportunities (including learning English with AI) to enable future participation in the digital economy, and address their unique challenges to create a safer, thriving world. By disseminating culturally appropriate and locally relevant information, migrant workers can protect themselves from trafficking and strengthen their communities’ well-being by making informed migration choices while increasing digital and financial literacy and developing new skills for advancement through microlearning. PAXU enables access to vetted job opportunities and employer ratings to improve transparency for ethical recruitment; and understanding of complex concepts (purchasing power parity, living cost comparisons, etc.) through four unique calculators for workers to make informed decisions. Phở Index® and Living Costs comparison calculators inform users of their migration decision. Job seekers can calculate debt repayment and learn about labor broker fees to prevent debt bondage.

Users can also access resources on COVID-19, unemployment, and finding jobs safely during COVID-19, in addition to topics on digital and financial literacy, trafficking prevention, safe migration, and forced labor. Thanks to technology and gamification, hard-to-reach migrant workers, especially in lower levels of the supply chain, are quicker and more cost-effective. 

Our target population is migrant workers, of which the most marginalized and vulnerable are women, ethnic minorities, low-skilled, and impoverished. In Vietnam, this includes job seekers living in industrial parks and the border regions in Vietnam, aged 18-40, who make 3-5 million VND/month (approximately 130-220 USD/month). Of this population, 70% are women, and 30% are men. 

Informed by 20 years of women and youth empowerment in Vietnam, engaging 150,000+ at-risk community members, and training 52,000+ workers in the supply chain, PAXU is based on a holistic, gamified, global community approach that meets cultural-specific, individual needs. Today’s free movement of trade with increased worker migration raises safety concerns while eroding brand reputation and consumer confidence.

PAXU 1) reduces vulnerabilities by empowering migrant workers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to reach their full potential through informed choices about their future and access to better, safer economic opportunities, 2) combating false information spread by traffickers by widening access to the latest vetted information, 3) microlearning activities focused on English learning and digital literacy to upskill workers. Frequent input from users is solicited through surveys and focus groups to continually improve PAXU. 

Our problem, solution, and target population closely align with the Challenge’s goals. PAXU is a solution that enables and empowers migrant workers to participate in the digital economy through upskilling opportunities and equipping workers with relevant and culturally appropriate information to ensure their safety. We are committed to the growth and well-being of workers, especially those most vulnerable to being trafficked or subjected to modern slavery. PAXU encompasses the educational aspects of the Challenge necessary to equip everyone with culturally relevant digital literacy skills to enable participation in the digital economy.

PAXU is currently available on the Google Play Store in both Vietnamese and English. PAXU has been launched in Vietnam, a significant source country for victims of trafficking, with 17,000+ downloads. Common destination countries for potential victims of trafficking include the UK, China, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

In the future,  additional languages for migrants who are can be added and PAXU can be launched in different communities with high incidences of trafficking.

PAXU is a mobile application that helps migrant workers comprehensively think through their decision to migrate through gamification. PAXU digitizes crucial, complex information that migrant workers must understand and consider when accessing job opportunities in a simple and culturally relevant manner. We incentivize users to continue learning throughout the app through gamification. 

PAXU currently serves 17,000+ users.

In one year, PAXU can serve 100,000+ users. 

In five years, PAXU can serve 500,000+ users. 

PAXU is designed to be scalable. In the first year, our focus will be on refining the solution to better serve the existing population. We will then leverage our existing programs and partnerships, especially those with the private sector to increase app adoption. PacLinks can be localized for migrant workers in other source and destination countries. The number of people served will depend on the resources available. 

Pacific Links Foundation advocates for women and girls through capacity building to unlock their self-confidence and economic potential. We will measure the impact of our project through focus groups, interviews, pre-and-post-tests, and surveys. 

We expect: 

• Increase in workforce readiness skills by 90% 

• Increase in leadership skills by 70>#/p###

• Access to safer, better economic opportunities 

• Factories creating opportunities for women to lead and deploying solutions to protect the supply chain from trafficking 

• Amplification of worker’s voice and women’s voices, recognized by peers and management

• Creation of community and support network for migrant workers

These numbers are projected based on our current results from FACT, PAXU, and other initiatives. 

Indicators include:   

• Number of people promoted the app 

• Number of downloads 

• User retention rate

• Number of users, especially women trained in workforce readiness skills

• Number of users, especially women using the calculators 

• Percentage of users, especially women using PAXU for news

• Part-time staff: 6 

• Volunteers: 2

Pacific Links Foundation has 20+ years of experience empowering women and youth in a culturally competent context. Over the years, we have built a vast collaborative network engaging many other trusted NGOs, multinationals (Intel, Walmart, Clarks Shoes, LBrands, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc.), international foundations (Walmart Foundation, Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, Rotary, etc.), and governments which speak to the trust in our programs. Our direct grassroots experience in Vietnam working with over 150,000 disadvantaged youth - many of whom are migrant workers - brings a first-hand understanding of what is needed most.

Our solutions are informed by our beneficiaries as well as stakeholders (brands, factories, local governmental partners, etc.) to give voice and bring diverse perspectives to address their unique needs. 

We already have valuable databases through 20+ years of field expertise, cultural competency, tailored content, and access venues to reach the target population.  

All will ensure successful deliverables to enrich PAXU content and accelerate delivery to a wider audience globally, catered to local needs while addressing today’s global challenges.

We believe that it is important to have a leadership team that represents diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills including those from similar communities that we serve and those who have overcome similar hardships. 

Led by women in nonprofits, businesses, and legal, our team collectively has 150+ years of expertise to solve the global challenges disadvantaged youth, especially women and girls face to advance their standing in society. Furthermore, our team consists of former refugees who understand the vulnerabilities migrants face.  

Pacific Links Foundation collectively brings decades of experience in women’s empowerment, youth development, poverty alleviation, counter-trafficking, and social work.

We are applying to Solve to expand our network to scale PAXU to millions of potential users. This includes: 

1. Developing partnerships to enhance our solution, access additional funding in grants and investments, and replicate our solution in other countries

2. Receiving mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts

3. Receiving monitoring and evaluation support to refine our impact measurement practice 

4. Gaining exposure in the media and at conferences 

5. Accessing in-kind resources

The following support is especially needed to scale PAXU: 

• Business model including strategy and development of a business plan 

• Financial to develop a pitch to potential investors 

• Public Relations to develop a branding/marketing strategy, social and global media presences to attract new PAXU users 

• Monitoring & Evaluation to fully capture our impact 

• Service Distribution to expand our client base and develop partnerships with retailers and brands to deploy PAXU

• Technology to further develop PAXU including localization, optimization according to market conditions and user feedback, and new features

We are looking to partner with organizations that can:

1. Integrate existing AI learning tools, especially for English 

2. Connect existing Workforce Readiness solutions and services for migrant workers (banks, housing, etc.) to PAXU  

3. Further support the development of PAXU such as MIT faculty, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Geneva Learning Foundation

PAXU can be used by refugees as they are navigating movements through different countries to better understand job opportunities and to upskill. 

Our team will use the prize to deploy PAXU to more users, and build out partnerships and opportunities for upskilling.

PAXU enables migrant workers globally to improve their digital literacy and upskill for improved economic opportunities. PAXU also connects workers with vetted information and job opportunities. 

Our team will use the prize to deploy PAXU to more users, and build out partnerships and opportunities for upskilling.

Through providing hundreds of grassroots training in factories and surrounding communities across Vietnam, we know that upskilling a woman's technical and soft skills while honing her critical thinking will bring job promotions and higher earnings to her and her family while increasing her standing in the community. Her voice will be heard and her opinion regarded. PAXU delivers her eLearning needs and builds digital literacy wherever she works and lives, while AI personalizes the experience. If she can communicate effectively in English, her earnings are at least 70-80% more than her peers without the language skill. Combined with her technical and soft skills in teamwork, conflict resolution, and communication, she would be one of the high potential/top talents in her field. These essential skills are often accessible to office workers and mid-level managers, but not to low-wage workers - many of whom are women. 

Our team will use the prize to deploy PAXU to more users, and build out partnerships and opportunities for upskilling.

PAXU incorporates AI in English learning to scale the ability to provide users personalized feedback. Our team will use the prize to deploy PAXU to more users and build out partnerships and opportunities to further incorporate AI.

PAXU brings increased opportunities for migrant workers to upskill to access improved economic opportunities. By transforming vulnerable youth, especially girls, they will reinvest into their families and communities - eventually alleviating poverty and transforming communities. Furthermore, increased education and improved economic opportunities decrease vulnerable youth’s risks of being trafficked and enable the continued positive development of communities. 

Our team will use the prize to deploy PAXU to more users, and build out partnerships and opportunities for upskilling.