Bloom[ED]

Approximately 12-13 million girls - out of school in Pakistan.

Pakistan, a developing country in Asia, has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (UNESCO) A huge chunk of this population consists of the girl child, who are unable to continue their education due to many challenges.

Living in Pakistan as a young girl myself, I see a world where economic instability due to the pandemic led to a larger drop-out rates from schools mainly by the girl child, where education systems are of low quality, where traditional stereotypical mindsets limit girls from getting access to good quality education, where girls are married at an early age, where technology is only meant for boys, where beauty is the only thing that define a girl, and where opportunities are rare.

If we take a look at some figures, nearly 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and this drops to 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level. The percentage of female adolescents in Pakistan not in education, employment, or training is 42.9%, which has worsened even more due to the pandemic. (UNESCO & UNICEF)

The case is even worse in rural areas, where a half-kilometer increase in the distance to school will decrease girls' enrolment by 20 percent. (UN Women) 

In most rural areas, parents focus on feeding their children with the small wage they earn and are unable to educate their children (mainly daughters - as daughters are considered to be a burden on a family - a harsh reality). And instead of accessing education, girls are put to work at an early age so they can start earning as well and are forced into child marriages as soon as possible - leaving no option for these girls to build their own future and thrive as individuals.

 Other issues that arise in the political landscape, media, etc also contribute towards girls dropout.

According to global statistics (UN Women), just 39 percent of girls in rural areas attend secondary school. This is far fewer than girls in urban areas (59 percent).

Young girls have the power to bring change in the world, but when they are deprived of education - a basic human right, we cannot build the future.

BloomED works as a digital aggregator platform, connecting out-of-school girl child with teachers/tutors virtually so that no girl is left behind. 

In rural areas, data providers offer free packages and services to access apps like WhatsApp & Facebook. Bloom[ED] takes advantage of this opportunity to provide girls in rural areas to access learning opportunities free of cost without having to worry about purchasing costly internet connection packages.

One of the main elements of Bloom[ED] is a virtual chatbot accessible on free-of-cost platforms like WhatsApp & Facebook. The chatbot asks a series of easy multiple choice questions for the student and then works on finding the best match (according to learning level) and connecting her to an ALP (Alternative Learning Pathway).

The ALP’s are led by virtual female teacher/tutor that utilizes existing content as part of the National Curriculum and additional/personalized content built by Bloom[ED] (with the support of educational partners and experts).

ALP’s utilize both live and offline modes.

Students have the option to join group sessions or 1-on-1 sessions with a professional teacher. To access learning content, a learning platform that enables access to offline content and learning material, so they can learn flexibly.

Additional learning pathways that focus on skill-based knowledge that can enable these girls to earn an income will also be available (e.g: STEM Girl - another initiative by Global Creative Hub)

The main focus of Bloom[ED] is to provide girls with personalized learning content via pathways so that they can continue their education no matter what their circumstances are, and on the other hand offer teachers/tutors an opportunity to teach and share their expertise with those less deprived of it.

Our solution serves girl child belonging to low socio-economic backgrounds or rural areas in Pakistan. These girls mostly are unable to study due to various limitations and challenges, many of which are as follows:

Lack of proper education systems, far-away schools, stereotypes and traditional mindsets of parents and community, early school dropout to help around at home, girl child being considered a ‘burden’ to a family as opposed to boys, early child marriages, etc

 By providing these girls with an opportunity to continue studying, they will be able to pursue building a future for themselves and change their socio-economic conditions, and works towards building a better world for other girls.  

Educating girls empowers them with knowledge which in turn allows them to gain self-confidence, independence, goals, and dreams, contributing to the empowerment of communities at large. Because when we are able to empower young girls, they act as catalysts and advocate with knowledge in their respective communities.

About the Team:

Amna Habiba is a 16-year-old Pakistani, founder of Global Creative Hub, international speaker with more than 50K views, STEM enthusiast, and an advocate for girls' education and digital literacy. Recipient of Young Achiever Award & runnerup for Young Voices Award, featured by UN & Malala Fund, spoken at World Bank, UNESCO, IFC, and more; she is passionate about using digital for social good and the UN SDGs. In December, she celebrated her birthday by launching the #STEM16 campaign. Finalist for the Girls Save the World Prize.

Quratulain Hussain is a lecturer at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Karachi, an IVLP alumna, volunteer CEO of Global Creative Hub, and a girls’ rights and peace activist, she has over a decade of experience volunteering and working with at-risk youth in Pakistan. Recipient of multiple scholarships, she is a MOOC facilitator, mentor, and has recently finished a project on teaching resilience for teachers from 10+ countries around the world.

Why Us?

I believe that my team has the right skill set to execute this project because of the extensive experience we have leading GCH and organizing multiple large scale events - 3 hackathons, training programs, etc

I bring to the table insights and experiences as someone in the same age group as our target audience.

And Ms.Quratulain brings in her expertise and extensive experience as a teacher educator working in education for more than a decade.

Integration of Community:

As team leads of Global Creative Hub, a social development initiative that is on a mission to change the narrative for young girls in Pakistan and beyond. Based on the feedback and results from our 100% female-focused training programs that have impacted 1000 young girls to date, we were able to identify problems faced by young girls interested in continuing their education and exploring different career trajectories.

Based on the observation, feedback, and extensive research - supported with participant testimonials, Bloom[ED] came into being, and as a young girl that belongs to the same age group as the solution target group, I was able to build the prototype with first-hand experience along with insights from other youngsters during the ideation and prototyping stages.

We are applying to Solve to access a network of resources, community, support, and to build our idea with the help of expert mentors in various areas of expertise. The Solve community enables social entrepreneurs like ourselves to build better and impact better.

Bloom[ED] is the first-of-its-kind virtual solution that enables out-of-school girl child to continue learning and pursuing their dreams by connecting them with Alterative Learning Pathways (ALP’s are also endorsed by UNESCO) for free and via accessible platforms like WhatsApp through an easy-to-use, gamified, and interactive chatbot experience. 

The solution also has the potential to be replicated in other developing countries where access to the internet is expensive for underprivileged families and where services like WhatsApp are available for free by data providers.

• Develop Alternative Learning Pathways for girl child unable to formally continue education.

• Provide an accessible learning platform that enables girls to access learning opportunities for free.

• Develop & launch a virtual chatbot and learning system that can connect disadvantaged and disconnected girl child with opportunities to learn and grow.

• Form partnerships with academic institutions to further develop ALP

• Bring a reform in the education system of Pakistan and direct focus of education and innovation towards rural areas of the country

We currently are measuring our progress in terms of research and development. As for measuring the progress of the project impact, the following indicators are what we will be striving towards:

UN SDGs 4,5, 8, 10 & 17

Techniques that will be utilized.

Insights from AI-based virtual chatbot

Insights from anonymized ALP dashboards 

User feedback data from various sources

Expert teachers/tutors insights

Progress levels and completion rate per pathway

Special event-based learning modules

And more

The Bloom[ED] theory of change revolves around building an accessible and engaging learning environment for girl child in rural and low-socioeconomic areas so they can have an opportunity to continue their education despite their circumstances and limitations. By providing and supporting the next generation of changemakers with the opportunities and skills to grow and thrive in the world, the following are the (in-progress) elements of our strategy:

• Create an accessible and engaging learning experience

• Engage expert teaching professional in developing ALP

• Developing Alternative Learning Pathway’s for different subjects and skills in respect to levels

• Work with educational institutions to support disadvantaged and disconnected girl child to the digital and physical world of opportunities

In rural areas, data providers offer free packages and services to access apps like WhatsApp & Facebook. Bloom[ED] takes advantage of this opportunity to provide girls in rural areas to access learning opportunities free of cost without having to worry about purchasing costly internet connection packages.

One of the main elements of Bloom[ED] is a virtual chatbot accessible on free-of-cost platforms like WhatsApp & Facebook. The chatbot asks a series of easy multiple choice questions for the student and then works on finding the best match (according to learning level) and connecting her to an ALP (Alternative Learning Pathway).

The ALP is based and available for these girls through the chabot and an offline learning platform that allows access to learning material/content offline as well.

Students have the option to join group sessions (for free) or 1-on-1 sessions with a professional teacher (for a very small fee - approx $1, that can be covered by scholarships offered by Bloom[ED]). The other mode that will be part of our business model is adverts on the Bloom[ED] platform. The scholarships that we will offer to the students will be funded by the partner and philanthropic organizations.

Grants, Donations, Ad Revenue, Small Program Fee, Partnerships, etc

One of the ALP that we are currently developing (STEM Girl) is in the process of receiving 2 grants. One is a support grant as part of the HP Girls Save the World Prize (as part of the MIT Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Challenge) and the other is a microgrant from MIT Solv[ED].

As Bloom[ED] is still in the prototyping stage, we haven’t generated any revenue or started raising funds.