Project Rangeet

PROBLEMS: Many government/low-fee private schools are under-resourced/ overburdened. Employing rote methods, they ignore individual needs/creativity/the future, not teaching children skills vital to navigate daily life. 

Differences in income/gender/race/religion/language/geography produce inequalities.

Covid-19 has caused hardships including academic/social-emotional learning loss. Mental health issues are pervasive.

Research shows social-emotional skills are essential for personal development and help bridge gaps in inequalities. Despite this, SEL programs aren’t widely adopted.

SOLUTION: Rangeet is easy to implement/scale with pedagogical methods that benefit students/facilitators.

Schools/communities/parents can facilitate development through Project Rangeet's mobile-app featuring Social-Emotional and Ecological Knowledge(SEEK) lessons/resources. Multiple intelligence/playful learning methods ensure every child benefits.

Children become better all-round learners, developing empathy for themselves, others, and all life on earth. 

Designed to be taught anywhere/anytime/by anyone, in-person/remotely, in schools/communities, achieving maximum global reach/effect through scaling/replication. SEEK impacts children, communities/societies and thinking.

By design, it has the potential to empower facilitators and children from any background.

Children from poor/marginalised communities deserve the same accessibility/opportunities to quality learning/skills as their advantaged counterparts regardless of connectivity. 

Outdated/overburdened educational systems and differences in income/gender/race/religion/language/geography cause inequalities (including educational) worldwide eg. India census 2011- 82% boys versus 65% girls were literate. 2019 World Bank data suggests 356 million children globally lived in extreme poverty. Covid-19 has increased this. 

CASEL and LegoFoundation research states social-emotional skills/play help bridge gaps in educational inequalities. By design, most social-emotional programs exclude the poorest/marginalised. For example, Indian Ministry of Rural Development found only 8% of all Indian homes with children have computers with internet connectivity; 24% have smartphones (Scroll.in). This 24% will only grow with time. Other developing countries show similar problems. Edtech can leapfrog learning but only 8% of edtech use smartphones (Central Square Foundation). Designed around the UNSDGs, Project Rangeet is uniquely suited to low-connectivity settings where students lack computers/tablets/mobiles. It is not another app adding screen time. Only facilitators (educators/parents/community members) require a smartphone to teach any number of children to fill socio-emotional voids.

Facilitators are irreplaceable. Structured lessons ensure quality teaching by anyone. Playful learning/multiple intelligence methods create joyful/safe/equitable learning environments, where children are accepted for who they are. 

Facilitators use a mobile app featuring structured SEEK lessons/resources that can be taught to children in schools/communities in any socioeconomic/geographic context, anytime, in-person/remotely. 

"Human relationships are at the core of loving and learning. Through song & playful activities, Project Rangeet flexes our social muscles & prepares children to be tomorrow's carers, thinkers & citizens."
-Kathy Hirsch-Pasek, Brookings Institution

Classes are active, with room for discovery/experiential learning through inquiry/reflection; engaging; meaningful, connecting new content and prior knowledge; socially interactive with peer collaboration and adult support; iterative with chances to form/test/revise hypotheses; and joyful. These principles naturally emerge through guided play, in which an adult facilitates child-led playful activities to meet learning goals. 

Full lessons can be taught from any of nine modules from our Self/Society/Ecology Umbrellas, activities chosen to complement core subjects (eg. Science/Geography/English/Maths/P.E.), or even Pandemic Recovery Activities conducted. 

Monitoring tools, iterative feedback, impact measurement, facilitator reflection data is collected/analysed near real-time. Facilitators are pedagogically upskilled, rewarded for positive action, improve their social-emotional competencies and achieve greater job satisfaction.

Research basis

Media gallery

Free trial of the app (PLEASE CLICK ONLY FROM A MOBILE DEVICE)

“Social and Emotional Learning is about the education of the human heart. The future of human civilization and the protection of the planet depends on the evolution of the human heart and Project Rangeet’s methodologies are utterly essential.”

-David Sawyer, Converge, Education Reformer

Project Rangeet's SEEK intervention is effective on ALL children. However, initially we seek to benefit low-income and marginalised children/communities in the developing world, where often both parents/communities AND school systems tend to overlook teaching/instilling critical socio-emotional skills in children, choosing to focus on academics instead. In fact, even in developed countries we are now seeing a lack of empathy, understanding, communication and collaboration at an individual level. Worldwide, the focus is on academics, not the holistic development of children. As Kathy Hirsch-Pasek (Brookings Institution) states SEL is "no longer a nice-to-have." It is as, if not more, important than academics. Project Rangeet's aim is to fill this void. Stephanie M. Jones (Professor of Early Childhood Development, Harvard Graduate School of Education) concludes that if we don’t solve the social-emotional loss suffered as a result of Covid-19, we will accelerate learning loss by simply focusing on academics.

Social-emotional learning includes the process of developing self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills vital to everyday life (Denham 2003; Duncan 2007). Research links strong social-emotional skills to increased mental, social and academic outcomes (Elias 2008) and weak social-emotional skills to negative behaviours, well-being or even neuropsychiatric disorders (Paus 2008; Durlak et al 2011; Kautz et al for OECD). Development of such skills lasts into young adulthood (Mills 2018), offering a prolonged window of opportunity for positive impact on individuals and communities (Kautz et al foe OECD).

Project Rangeet’s app enables our research-based content to reach the hearts and minds of both the facilitator and children at scale. It goes beyond the socio-emotional skills taught at home/school, if any.  Project Rangeet draws upon the knowledge of experts across fields, whether it be child psychologists, environmentalists, nutritionists, and more. In the words of educator Emily Style, Project Rangeet acts as a "mirror and window". Children identify with the language, stories and methods used to teach, whilst also opening the windows of their minds to worlds they know nothing about, making them more inclusive. 

Project Rangeet is scalable, adaptable, educationally sound, measurable and serves the displaced/underserved. It includes Ecology because without a healthy planet there is no viable future for all. SEEK currently has 75 lessons and a library of resources, including Pandemic Recovery Activities. It can be taught as 50 minute lessons or facilitators can use SEEK's resource library to help teach mainstream subjects in existing core curricula in a joyful/play based manner.

Facilitators also undergo a shift in attitude whilst teaching, thereby benefiting them and their communities.

Through SEEK, schools and communities become vehicles through which children can continuously learn and practice necessary life skills to function successfully in the present and future. Skills which will always be relevant, including:  

• Communication through listening, writing, reading and back and forth discussion.

• Collaboration and social engagement.

• Content. Helping navigate a vast sea of information.

• Critical Thinking to analyse and find solutions.

• Creative Innovation. Students must be challenged to think outside the box.

• Confidence. A school of the future is a place where learning improves due to the confidence and compassion exhibited by its students.

• Flexibility. Children must learn how to adapt to changing circumstances.

• Resilience. The ability to cope makes for stronger, happier, well-adjusted individuals.

• Leadership.  Motivating others to accomplish a goal.

• Initiative. Planning, starting projects and strategizing on one’s own. 

(The Brookings Institution, Policy 2020; Applied Education Systems, 2020)

Our beneficiaries include:

(i)         Educators/facilitators, who are over-worked and under-resourced. As advisor on education to the OECD Andreas Schleicher states, what drives teachers' stress and burnout is not the workload but the perception that they’re doing so much meaningless work that has nothing to do with the development of children. SEEK helps them improve their own socio-emotional and 21st century skills whilst teaching. Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) research shows that teachers with developed socio-emotional competencies achieve greater job satisfaction and are less likely to suffer burnout. This in turn leads to less money being spent on training new teachers and remediation. As our video evidence shows, Project Rangeet helps teachers find that meaning.

Teachers are also pedagogically upskilled across subjects. Impact reports on SEEK interventions also show that personal biases and teaching attitudes are also improved. 

(ii)        Children. An 18-year study on over 97,500 K-12 students across different socio-economic/racial/geographic contexts by CASEL, shows that children with developed social-emotional competencies are more likely to finish school, maintain employment, lead happier lives and less likely to fall into negative behaviours. 

The World Economic Forum states that the ten most important skills employers look for are social-emotional. A Columbia University study states that for every $1 invested in SEL, economies earn back $11, which would have been spent on remediation. 

(iii)      Administrators, schools, communities. Monitoring tools built into the Project Rangeet app assist educators, administrators, donors and community heads to track important data from actual sessions in real-time. Data is collected such as date, time and geolocation of each class as well as iterative feedback from the children which gives educators insight into whether the children are enjoying and understanding the classes. This is separate from impact data, which is also provided. The monitoring data helps facilitators understand progress in near real-time, and gives donors deep insight into the program they are supporting and its efficacy, allowing them to release funds based on achievement of transparent mutually agreed key performance indicators (KPIs). Facilitators' reflections are also taken into account. In this way, administrators can ensure the success of the program. Impact data tracks overall social awareness and improvement in attitudes to important social issues including discrimination, bullying, gender equality, mental health issues and climate change.  

(iv) Communities and Societies. Facilitators and local community members are empowered. Due to the detail of the lesson plans, anyone aged 16 and above who can read can teach SEEK. The user-friendly aspects of the lessons/activities can increase community participation and engagement, allowing community members to take ownership of bettering their communities. The minimal infrastructure and training requirement makes the app and SEEK easy to adapt and adopt in any local context making overall programming sustainable. 

Project Rangeet also benefits children who are not attending school by equipping them with skills vital to function successfully in their daily lives. 

As can be deduced from the above, societies are impacted positively through a more empathetic, content, efficient workforce with more engaged and inclusive learning systems. Awareness of burning social issues increases in facilitators and children. Children discuss such issues with their families, thus, eventually leading to a more empathetic and aware society.

In the pipeline: Minting of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to record social activity enabling micro payments to/ support for facilitators and students for tasks done promoting a network for social good. This will unleash a wall of capital to support underpaid educators.

Children feel included, schools & educators win, workplaces benefit, society strengthens. 

Human Centric Design: Initially we developed content around areas we felt were important to address- gender, discrimination, diversity, empathy, mindfulness, climate change. After a series of workshops in India, we were invited by BRAC and the government of Bangladesh to spend a week travelling in urban and rural Bangladesh: from community centres in tin sheds in rice fields to schools with concrete structures. We interviewed teachers, teacher trainers, education specialists; from the DPE (Department of Primary Education) and BEP (Brac Education Program) in different socioeconomic, geographical and cultural contexts to develop and structure our lessons. It is through listening to and co-creating with our target audience that the first version of Project Rangeet emerged. The need for monitoring and measuring lessons taught and impact on children was highlighted as an important requirement and was incorporated into app functionality.

The first version was taught in the field with teachers of differing abilities. Feedback received - e.g. lesson plans need more detailed time management, songs when translated into Bengali require more work, teachers in the Bangladesh context cannot be depicted without a headscarf. One of the most pivotal changes we had to make in our lessons: a story that depicted a muslim child getting discriminated against didn’t fit the cultural context in Bangladesh - a predominantly Islamic country - where children would likely not understand this narrative. This feedback from teachers was invaluable. All of this became crucial inputs into our playbook for understanding how to scale across geographical and cultural contexts.

The other key feedback from our initial user group was that teachers are already overburdened. The design of the product/lessons had to take this into account so that minimum preparation would be required for class and processes to collect data would be extremely simple.

Without the vital input of our user base at the earliest stage - our product would not connect so closely with educators and administrators.

Ongoing Feedback and Development: Project Rangeet's research and implementation is a continuous process. It is consistently tested and evaluated through pilot projects in both formal and informal settings, in schools and communities. Our early implementations in Bangladesh and conversations with BRAC also informed our multiple intelligence methodology as well as taught us to contextualise content to ensure its adaptability between cultures. Iterative feedback is encouraged from children and facilitators through our app. For example, several facilitators advised us to add a note to our "good touch, bad touch" discussion to further sensitise facilitators to children's sensibilities, which we did.

Technically we found that some of our users in rural areas were almost "afraid" of technology/mobiles/apps. This was a big issue which we had to overcome, doing so by making many engaging and short videos within the app.

To date, pilots have taken place in Bangladesh and India. Children in government and low fee private schools were taught both in-person and virtually for 50 minutes once a week for between 7 and 20 weeks. 

At the outset, teachers underwent approximately 12 hours of training. This has now been whittled down to 2-3 hours per Umbrella. Depending on how facilitators adopt the content, separate training may not be required after the first Umbrella. 

At the start, children take a baseline test in order to assess pre-existing attitudes before teaching SEEK. Baseline test results in the state of Jharkhand, India (one of the poorest mining states), showed gender and skin tone biases were prevalent amongst students, whilst the same test in Bangladesh revealed that gender and religious issues were paramount. To date, 755 teachers and 17,750 students have completed SEEK lessons. 

Endline tests provided evidence that SEEK interventions were successful in increasing awareness and changing attitudes around important social issues such as discrimination, gender equality and bullying. For example, the comparative analysis between the baseline and endline tests in Bangladesh showed an improvement in attitudes towards girls by 47.3%. Through near real-time assessments, teachers were able to understand existing issues in their communities and classrooms and implement a SEEK intervention to effect change. Data further revealed that children demonstrated positive behaviour, became more resilient and more skilled in social-emotional competencies, or 21st century skills. Teachers also confirmed that they were upskilled pedagogically through learning new playful learning methodologies and the understanding of multiple intelligences. 

Although our current focus is poor/marginalised children/communities in the developing world, Project Rangeet has also been taught in privileged schools in an attempt to democratise universal human values. 

On May 16, 2020, President Barack Obama addressed America’s high school graduating class in which he acknowledged that the world is in a precarious place and if it is going to get better, it’s going to be up to the children. He acknowledged that being one of the old guard it wasn’t for him to tell the younger generation what to do. The pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare that the old ways of operating don’t work.

Borrowing from Pulitzer Prize winning writer Thomas Friedman, as a species:

• We decided not to cooperate with one another or demonstrate empathy toward one another in a pandemic.

• We decided to discriminate on the colour of skin, religion, sexuality and language.

• We decided to invade pristine ecosystems and hunt their wildlife bringing viruses closer to us, making ourselves more vulnerable.

Where we are today was not inevitable. It was all about poor choices and poor values. It is becoming clear that empathy, compassion, climate change, personal well-being, anxiety and depression are all interconnected and to solve our problems, we need to have a plan.

That’s the uber lesson here: As the world gets more deeply intertwined, everyone’s behaviour — the values that each of us brings to this interdependent world — matters more than ever. And, therefore, so does the “Golden Rule.” It’s never been more important. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” because more people in more places in more ways on more days can now do unto you and you unto them like never before.

Impact Reports

Davos Labs: Digital Inclusion Summary

To read our full article:  Social Emotional Learning In Times Of Pandemics & Disruption

We have also developed a set of Pandemic Recovery Activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a cascading disaster giving rise to innumerable problems, not least of which is the rise of mental health issues in both adults and children. Research shows that feelings of anxiety, isolation and depression are now common. 

Lockdowns have trapped children in their homes, isolating them from the people and resources that could help them. Many relied on schools to act as safety nets and safe spaces (Environ Res 2020). Many girls are unlikely to ever return to school (Right to Education Forum); socio-economic pressures have led to a dramatic increase in child marriage and trafficking (Scroll.in 2021). 

Anyone can use our Pandemic Recovery Activities to help build resilience through joyful play, art, games, stories and song. The activities are designed around the understanding that every child learns differently, ensuring no child is left behind. 

We offer solutions for and tackle specific problems, such as: 

· Explaining the importance of social/physical distancing, mask-wearing, hygiene and vaccinations as well as the origin of the pandemic.

· Child protection and safety

· Mental Health

· Rise in inequality and discrimination

· Bullying

· Decrease in empathy

· Climate change

Inequalities (including educational) and out-dated/overburdened school systems maintain a vice-like grip on disconnected, marginalised communities. A SEEK intervention provides quality learning in low-connectivity settings (with only one smartphone/class), equipping children with a breadth of skills through music/art/storytelling/games/experiments/role play/dance, creating opportunities and providing them with tools vital to navigate daily life. The detail/structure of the content ensures the quality of teaching/classes. It has been taught in the most remote locations, including mangrove areas and tin sheds in rice fields. SEEK is educationally sound, accessible, scalable, adaptable to culture/language and affordable. 

Davos Digital Inclusion FullReport

How Project Rangeet Addresses Other Challenge Dimensions/Problems

We've been poised to scale since March '20, but COVID-19 related school closures forced us to adapt. A 10,000 teacher plan in Bangladesh was indefinitely delayed as was a 2,000 school plan in India. We adapted to bring true learning equity to children, focussing not just on schools but on children who are now casualties of the pandemic- not in school anymore. We're now piloting across schools/communities, gearing up for greater adoption, honing our systems and processes.

BRAC/Government Schools, urban/rural settings, Bangladesh: 50 centres 5,000 children. In person using app.

Aasraa Trust, Uttarakhand, India: 15 facilitators, 375 children; 8 schools; 7 community centres. Remotely using app.

Aangan Trust, WestBengal, India: 550 facilitators, 8250 children; 110 community centres. In person using app.

Ranchi, Jharkhand, India: 50 facilitators, 3750 children. In person using app.

Global Public School, Kerala, India: 3 facilitators, 300 children. Remotely using zoom/app.

Project Rangeet uses an innovative, recognised approach adaptable to different cultures and languages, scalable across socioeconomic and geographic contexts which can be co-opted by any organisation to impact not just individual children, but future societies and thinking. The platform ensures SEEK continuity in schools and within communities during the pandemic through in-person or remote lessons. We employ smartphone technology for maximum global reach, which only 8% of edtech companies use.

UNIQUE EDUCATIONAL APPROACH

• Uses multiple intelligences and playful learning methods to include every child

• Aligned with UN SDGs ensuring no child is left behind

• Research and experience-based

SCALABLE

• Affordable. Licence cost: USD10/month or USD100/year to teach any number of children

• Can be taught in a classroom/outside anywhere, any time 

• Can be taught by anyone. Easy to follow lesson plans enable anyone who can read: older students, community members, elders, parents, NGO volunteers to teach and support teachers

• Only 1 mobile device required (by facilitator NOT children). Uniquely suited to low-connectivity settings where students do not have computers, tablets or mobile devices 

• Accessible to students and facilitators from all socioeconomic backgrounds

• Minimal preparation time and resources  

• Adaptable to cultural contexts and language

RELEVANT

• Inclusion of ecology is key 

MEASURABLE

• Built-in process and mechanism to measure, monitor and assess impact of the program in real-time

COMMUNITY-LED 

• Empowering/rewarding facilitators. Allows facilitators to take ownership of bettering their communities. 

• Rewards positive action through Project Rangeet Superpower tokens. Pipeline: NFTs for social good.

SUSTAINABLE 

• Minimal infrastructure/training requirement makes easy to adapt and adopt

Till date we have served: 

Communities / Schools: 275

Teachers / Facilitators: 750-800

Students: 18,000

CURRENT: Currently owing to covid there has been a slowdown in numbers, owing to school shut downs, but out-of-school communities continue. This was a big adjustment we made through the pandemic. 

We continue to operate in two states in India:

Communities / Schools: 125

Teachers / Facilitators: 560

Students: 8500-8700

In One year:

Communities / Schools: 2,600

Teachers / Facilitators: 5,200

Students: 120,000

In five years (assuming no growth globally - just South Asia focussed):

Communities / Schools: 15,000

Teachers / Facilitators: 26,000

Students: 650,000-700,000

For more details click: here

NOTE: Covid-19 has slowed down our progress as schools in the sub continent remain shut, though we are still operating in some communities. Hence even in our forecasts we have pared back numbers as we'd like to make considered estimates. However, we believe that SEEK is more relevant today than it has ever been (Governments Must Commit To Quality Climate Education Now and Education Has A Three-Headed Crisis). We believe that Project Rangeet's model is imminently scalable and hope to learn/leverage/collaborate with the Solve Network to take this to millions around the globe.

We measure our progress through actual impact reports (with baseline and endline tests as described earlier), iterative feedback and evaluation/observations on the ground by facilitators, administrators and children, as well as through acceptance from renowned experts/organisations:

Brookings Institution Cites Project Rangeet In Study On Playful Learning. 

We worked with Brookings to co-present how Project Rangeet's activities map to 6C skills, to educational institutions.

The UN Endorses Project Rangeet

Endorsed by the UN as a good practice in SDG 4&5 (page.173)

Invited to contribute and were spotlit by Columbia University on a working paper for the Global Happiness Council.

World Economic Forum paper: Davos Labs 2021

SEL content and network partner for Big Heart World a collaboration with Noggin (Nick Jr)

To stringently evaluate our work, we are in the initial stage of working with a neuroscience lab from the University of Zurich and Jacobs Centre to analyse the long-term effects of our SEEK interventions on the brain.

We also measure impact on children and teachers through our app: Impact Report Summary as well as iterative feedback so we rapidly get inputs from classrooms if children are (a) having fun - a critical component of learning success and (b) understanding WHY they are doing what they are in classrooms. 

5 Full-time

2 Part-time

1 external graphic designer

1 external social media expert

1 animator

Stakeholder CVs

Click names below for founder life/work experiences.

Simran Mulchandani (Ex-Banker; Blockchain/tokenomics proficiency; Climate Activist) Director:Singaporean NGO Global Mangrove Trust, that has built a peer-to-peer platform for Mangrove Reforestation. Director at Lykke Corp- Swiss Fintech company building a marketplace for blockchain assets. B.Sc. in Computer Science from Brown University, worked at J.P. Morgan. CEO/Founder at Project Rangeet.

Karishma Menon (B.A English Literature). Documentary film maker in Bombay. Worked in Mallorca for Palma Pictures, and at boutique production company Highlight Films as a Production Assistant. First employee of blueFROG, involved in executing the launch of its flagship music club in Bombay, later rated by the Independent (UK) as one of the top ten music venues in the world.  At Project Rangeet, she works at the confluence of music, design, education and technology.

Renisha Bharvani (Lawyer in Singapore/UK/NY State,Researcher)  As a lawyer and mother, Renisha researched everything whilst raising kids: from sleep patterns to nutrition, mental health and the importance of exercise and play, the importance of taking risks, failure and independence, story-telling, art, and more. Combined with her professional/diverse background she is able to understand the needs of both our target population and the governments/administrators/funders of projects.

Priyanka Seth Pandit (Educator,Musician) Having grown up across several continents and with 25 years of teaching experience across subjects, schools, countries and socio-economic contexts, Priyanka is well suited to issues tackled by SEEK. Her role as Director of Diversity at New York City’s Chapin School also added to her learnings.

Two of the three founders, and one executive/stakeholder, are women. 

The team comprises open-minded individuals who want to make a difference, many having lived and experienced the issues we tackle in our content eg, discrimination, education inequality, mental health issues.

Between us, we have lived all over the world, worked in a variety of organisations from schools, to education start ups, investment banking to film production, law firms, hedge funds, live music venues to NGOs. This diversity of experience means that collectively we have had many years of meeting and appreciating people from different walks of life and learning to embrace the differences we see in the world, rather than using them as weapons to tear us apart.

We believe that just as biodiversity ensures strength in natural systems, diversity in human systems is an essential requirement for achieving learning and societal equality. And we don't want to create a company that tackles issues that have already been done, but to face up to the issues that are hard to talk about especially in the developing world like LGBTQIA, Body Positivity and Gender.

Our work is all about diversity and inclusion, and we strive to build a world in which nature and society are at peace.

As we have already seen from our Jacobs/MIT Solveathon Award, winning is not just about the money. More importantly it is about: 

• the mentorship, expertise, guidance and resources one receives in all areas; 
• the network we become part of and exposure we receive; 
• the collaboration and advice/feedback from peers who have encountered similar issues or even issues yet to come/avoid. 

The MIT network can mentor Project Rangeet in many areas including:

• UI/UX design and improvement. Our product could improve in design, and user experience. At the same time, it would be beneficial to speak with entrepreneurs who have been down the path we are on, who can guide us to  judiciously plan investments in technology.

• Continued curriculum design and development of an early childhood program. We currently have a curriculum for 7-16 year olds.  

• Developing adequate educational content will set us apart, but requires knowledge and sensitivity that is country-specific(e.g., Body Positivity and LGBTQIA). We believe this is important to achieve true equity and reform

• Sales and marketing to reach more educators and communities.

• Improvement of systematic data collection.

• Improvement of impact collection modules, and testing methodologies. 

Project Rangeet captures valuable data through its regular learning / classroom operations. We are excited to be part of the MIT Solve network. In as much as we look forward to gaining - through expertise, collaboration, connections, funding and so forth, we would be more than happy to share insights and data where permissible with other network partners to help enrich the whole.

• Human capital - figuring out what type of people we need/ what to look for / ensuring we find the right people with the right experience in the right location for the job
• Business model - refining product/market fit, strategy & development
• Financial - grants to help with growth. Figuring out the best education competitions/grants we should be applying for. Evaluating whether we ought to be considering a capital raise. Help with pitches / refinement of pitches.
• PR - branding/marketing strategy, social & global media, leadership buy-in. 
• Monitoring/Evaluation - measuring impact & collecting/using data. We are collaborating with researchers from universities (initially in Europe) to evaluate the efficacy of Project Rangeet and impact on the neurobiology of children. It will be beneficial to discuss the results with experts from the MIT network.
• Product/Service Distribution - expanding our client base locally & globally, picking and choosing the right markets and entry strategy.
• Technology -  improving the product to achieve greater scale. Advise around making judicious investments and prioritising product roadmap.

We would be excited to partner with MIT faculty (app developers, scientists to monitor and measure impact on individuals and society as a whole, etc), MIT's Media Lab (Mitchel Resnick) and of course Solve Members. In addition if there are networks of entrepreneurs who we can connect with for advice on tech roadmap, planning spending/prioritisation for a judicious but robust plan it would be very welcome.

It will be great to understand and explore options if possible with mentors from Solve.

Project Rangeet has been designed to be easily be delivered to children in crisis zones. Competence in social-emotional learning helps bridge gaps in inequalities. Our playful learning and multiple intelligence methodologies ensure every child is included. Children have fun during classes.

• Can be taught in a classroom/outside anywhere, anytime 

• Can be taught by anyone. Easy to follow structured lesson plans enable anyone who can read to teach without sacrificing on the quality of teaching. Displaced adults/older children can also teach.

• Only 1 mobile device required (by facilitator only). Uniquely suited to crisis zones where students do not have computers, tablets or mobile devices. 

• Project Rangeet has been taught in the most remote settings, including mangroves. 

• Accessible to students and teachers from all socioeconomic backgrounds

• Minimal preparation time and resources  

• Adaptable to cultural contexts and language

• Project Rangeet's Society Umbrella deals with discrimination & diversity, gender equality and Bullying, all values leading to greater inclusion.

• Empowering facilitators and local community members - The user-friendly aspects of the curriculum can increase community participation and engagement, allowing community members to take ownership of bettering their communities. 
• The minimal infrastructure and training requirement makes the platform and the SEEK curriculum easy to adapt and adopt at any local context making the overall programming sustainable. 
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to record social activity enable micro payments to/support for facilitators and students for tasks done promoting a social network of social good.

We would use the prize money to fund classes in refugee camps across the globe.

Project Rangeet has been designed to be easily be delivered to children in crisis zones. Competence in social-emotional learning helps bridge gaps in inequalities. Our playful learning and multiple intelligence methodologies ensure every child is included. Children have fun during classes.

• Can be taught in a classroom/outside anywhere, anytime 

• Can be taught by anyone. Easy to follow structured lesson plans enable anyone who can read to teach without sacrificing on the quality of teaching. Displaced adults/older children can also teach.

• Only 1 mobile device required (by facilitator only). Uniquely suited to crisis zones where students do not have computers, tablets or mobile devices. 

• Project Rangeet has been taught in the most remote settings, including mangroves. 

• Accessible to students and teachers from all socioeconomic backgrounds

• Minimal preparation time and resources  

• Adaptable to cultural contexts and language

• Project Rangeet's Society Umbrella deals with discrimination & diversity, gender equality and Bullying, all values leading to greater inclusion.

• Empowering facilitators and local community members - The user-friendly aspects of the curriculum can increase community participation and engagement, allowing community members to take ownership of bettering their communities. 
• The minimal infrastructure and training requirement makes the platform and the SEEK curriculum easy to adapt and adopt at any local context making the overall programming sustainable. 
• NFTs to record social activity enable micro payments to/support for facilitators and students for tasks done promoting a social network of social good. 

We would use the prize money to fund classes in refugee camps across the globe.

Project Rangeet teaches students/facilitators to develop empathy for themselves, others, all life on earth. To do this we group content under three Umbrellas:Self, Society, Ecology. 

Our Society Umbrella deals with: 

• Different types of Discrimination (gender, race, creed, colour, language and socioeconomic)
• Gender Equality 
• Bullying

Through Project Rangeet girls and boys learn the important roles both sexes play in uplifting girls and women. Children learn about protection and celebration of the girl child, positive masculinity and the education and personal safety of both genders.

The Self Umbrella teaches children about their rights and the rights of others, who are often taken advantage of, such as women, the elderly, disabled and animals. Children learn to raise their voices and make changes in their world, for the benefit of all.

The user-friendly aspects of the curriculum/minimum training requirement can increase community participation and engagement, allowing community women to take ownership of bettering their communities. The positive externality is that we empower women to earn/better their lives which in turn leads to stronger communities.

We would use the funds to take this knowledge to girls and women across the globe. Women could become facilitators or part of a support system in our model for scaling. NFTs to record social activity enable micro payments to/support for facilitators and students for tasks done promoting a social network of social good. 

Project Rangeet founders/directors are predominantly women. We would showcase this to young girls to inspire them to achieve their dreams.

At this stage we do not believe that we qualify. However we would like to include AI in our future product roadmap. This is something we would certainly like to be considered for in the future.

Project Rangeet uses Stellar blockchain tokens named SPWR (Superpowers) with the objective of creating a robust community of facilitators, teachers, administrators, children and parents. In our pilots we have rewarded teachers for conducting classes, translating material, contextualising material and making videos of classroom sessions for our internal use, understanding and improvement. These tokens were not convertible to other cryptos, rather functioned much like loyalty points.

In Bangladesh - teachers who accumulated SPWR tokens were rewarded through a conversion system. SPWRs earned by teachers were convertible to mobile recharge plans which was very popular with them and created great joy and satisfaction.

Our tech partner is the winner of the Stellar Community SeedFund  which supports early-stage Stellar development of long-term utilities for the ecosystem and viable, for-profit, businesses building products and services for the world.

As a next phase we intend to implement minting of NFTs to record social activity enabling micro payments to/ support for facilitators and students for tasks done promoting a social network of social good

Hence we believe we are suited to apply for this grant as we use blockchain for social good, inclusion and equity, and are excited to partner with, learn from and develop our solution with experts from this area.