Our pitch:
We have been working with 500 Rohingya refugee children in the camps of Bangladesh for the last year. Based on our innovative work, we've observed some incredible results. The children are starting to smile, play, and regain a sense of hope. We believe we can share this healing with the world.
There are over 68 million refugees in the world today, the largest number of globally displaced people since WWII. Over 50% of them are children, and the rate of displacement is alarming: every 6 seconds, a child is forced from their home. While current humanitarian interventions help children survive, they lack the critical social and emotional support to help them thrive.
Displacement causes loss of supportive structures, routines, and relationships. Prolonged exposure to trauma manifests as toxic stress, which impairs the child's physical, mental, and emotional health, and undermines their quality of life for the long term unless reversed.
Our initiative seeks to develop the first global platform of engaging, accessible, evidence-based interventions, videos, and training for the emotional wellbeing of refugee children. The platform includes a toolkit of best practices, teaching materials, and delivery system, accessible to NGOs and caregivers who are responsible for their wellbeing.
The toolkit provides an online series of 10-minute videos, downloadable manuals, and other practical resources. Here's a preview of what's included in the toolkit:
I. Identify and address PTSD in Children:
a) How to identify signs of trauma/PTSD in children
b) Evidence-based best practices to reduce stress/trauma, restore neurophysiological balance to stress-response systems, and promote emotional recovery.
c) Healing words, trust exercises, group therapy session guidance
d) De-stigmatization of trauma; working with cultural/faith language to understand and mitigate trauma
e) Therapeutic play, e.g., drawing or songs and dances based on the child’s cultural traditions.
II. Self-Care techniques for NGO workers:
a) The emotional health of caregivers is a major determinant of mental health in traumatized children. If our aim is to provide healing for children, it must begin with their caregivers.
b) Stress reduction techniques for those who work with traumatized children to prevent secondary PTSD and burn-out
III. Sustainability, Adaptability, and Growth
c) Create a self-sustaining program whereby local caregivers can obtain ongoing trauma training for working with children.
h) Outreach and program information to caregivers, teachers, relief workers, NGOs, and other organizations responsible for the wellbeing of refugee children through national and international organizations and media.
i) A system to monitor applications of our toolkit, gather feedback from local providers, collaborate to further improve the program, and assess the effects on the children using standardized test measures.
Currently, only 2% of global humanitarian aid is spent on education, and a tiny fraction of this is spent on social and emotional learning. By investing in their healing social and emotional interactions between NGO caregivers and refugee/at-risk children, we can help them live healthier, more fulfilling lives. In so doing, we can break the cycle of poverty, instability, violence, and hopelessness that too often seal the fate of refugees.
Watch our elevator pitch:
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Washington, DC, USAThe dimensions of the Challenge our solution addresses:
What makes our solution innovative:
This initiative is a first-of-its-kind global platform of engaging, evidence-based mental health interventions addressing the emotional wellbeing of refugee children.
The platform will leverage existing technology frameworks to create an online video and digital content curriculum that can be accessed globally to better support NGOs and field workers create healing environments and interactions with children.
Many of these environments are remote and with little access to internet, so we are relying on creative technology solutions and use of mobile tablets pre-loaded with content for delivery.
How technology is integral to our solution:
Scalable technology platforms and content delivery is of essence for our initiative. We will require our platform and stakeholder devices to function in remote and unpredictable environments to provide best-in-class trauma and emotional support guidance.
We envision using cloud technology to house our digital curriculum and content to advance our mission. We are also exploring affordable and reliable mobile devices to supplement on the ground implementation and training efforts in connectivity challenged parts of the world.
Our solution goals over the next 12 months:
Over the next 12 months, our goals can be understood in 4-steps:
1. Produce evidence-based, trauma-informed curriculum and toolkit content for pilot.
2. Establish pilot program with 5-10 NGOs operating with refugee child protection and education. Focus will initially be in Bangladesh, and could include current partners operating in Africa.
3. Monitor and analyze results of pilot program (i.e. the deployment of the curriculum toolkit). Based on research, we will adapt or add to the curriculum before establishing broader partnerships for global deployment.
4. Build scalable e-platform that can support global engagement.
Our vision over the next three to five years to grow and scale our solution to affect the lives of more people:
1-2 year Plan:
1. Conduct needs assessment of current psychosocial support models & training approaches (Design-thinking phase, currently ongoing)
2. Produce content based on design research findings, in close collaboration with child well-being experts, psychologists, and humanitarian relief workers.
3. Pilot implementation with 5-10 partner NGOs. Partner with research institution to help measure effectiveness of our program.
2-5 year plan:
1. Expand tested and proven curriculum and content to address global refugee environments.
2. Consistently improve content and design of platform to accommodate & serve global traffic.
3. Scale on-site implementation team to reach refugee population centers in five continents.
Our promotional video:
The key characteristics of the populations who will benefit from our solution in the next 12 months:
The regions where we will be operating in the next 12 months:
The countries where we currently operate:
Where we plan to expand in the next 12 months:
How we will reach and retain our customers or beneficiaries:
1. Reach: We are in discussions with NGOs in Bangladesh and in research & dev phase. These NGOs have expressed interest to become pilot partners as the platform is developed. Partnered NGOs who work with child populations will be trained through online/offline content. A supervising on-site implementation team will help manage & maintain the integrity of curriculum.
2. Retention: The implementation team & the platform will serve two purposes i) ensure effective use of mental & emotional health training resources; ii) create feedback loop to help understand the ongoing psychosocial needs through which we will continually enhance the content.
How many people we are currently serving with our solution:
We are currently serving 500 Rohingya refugee children at the Safe Haven we founded in the refugee camps of Bangladesh. The NGOs we have partnered have received initial training on aspects of our curriculum, through which we have seen positive impact on the children.
Additionally, components of our resources have been deployed in the healing of 9/11 first responders; Nigerian Chibok girls (kidnapped by Boko Haram); Uganda, Congo, Syrian refugees in Berlin.
By identifying our partner NGO, and the children's emotional and metal health needs on the ground, we are better able to design new content and curriculum accordingly.
How many people we will be serving with our solution in the 12 months and the next 3 years:
1-12 months:
Create content that can be leveraged by NGOs (beneficiaries) working with over 400,000 Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh. Our goal is to onboard these organizations as pilot partners.
Our expectation is that our curriculum will enhance the NGO workers' understanding of mental health and how it impacts children, and how best to engage and support them in their healing process. As a result, we anticipate measurable improvements in children's wellbeing indices.
By months 24-36
We aim to scale the platform content and users beyond our initial pilot group and geographic focus, towards global deployments.
How our solution team is organized:
Non-ProfitExplaining our organization:
Currently in process of filing Non-profit status with IRS
How many people work on our solution team:
8How many years we have been working on our solution:
Less than 1 yearThe skills our solution team has that will enable us to attract the different resources needed to succeed and make an impact:
Our team includes experienced tech/social entrepreneurs and highly qualified mental health professionals who have published studies of the highly effective programs they created for recovery from mass disasters.
Our programs have significantly reduced PTSD and depression in survivors of the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami, 9/11 WTC attacks, South Sudan war and human trafficking, Gulf Horizon oil spill, Rwandan genocide, Middle East refugees, at-risk American children, and Rohingya refugee children.
Founder of No Limit Generation, Samier Mansur is the co-founder of LiveSafe, a mobile safety and security communications platform that keeps millions of people around the world safe.
Our revenue model:
The demand for psychosocial support is growing. We are the cutting edge of this movement for which there is incredible unmet demand. The science is clear on the impact of psychosocial support and the positive benefits for health, and quality life outcomes of the child. Additionally, these benefits extend across social indicators across all major indices.
As an innovative charitable organization, our revenue models include tapping into:
- Innovative grant partners and partnerships with global humanitarian organizations to make the curriculum open and accessible for use in global refugee interventions.
- Corporate Social Responsibility partnerships and funding to leverage new technologies for good
- Customized curriculums and implementation services for large NGOs for fees
- Licensing of curriculum to private institutions for fees
- Fundraising and crowdfunding through events and campaigns
Investments in early childhood wellbeing is an investment in social wellbeing and prosperity. We are providing a much-needed global social good in this regard that produces manifold returns for society.
Why we are applying to Solve:
Our team is moved by MIT's commitment to the global refugee crisis. Whether it's through MIT's e-learning opportunities to refugees around the world; Admir Masic's Refugee Action Certificate Program; or MIT's incubators for refugee innovators; we believe there is mission & expertise alignment that warrants collaboration.
Our plans to bring digital mental health & wellbeing resources to the front lines of the refugee crisis can be greatly enhanced by MIT's talent & tools that have built scalable digital platforms. There is a natural synergy of technology, expertise & human-capital that can be leveraged to help build this necessary platform.
The key barriers for our solution:
1. Delivery of content to the front lines of global refugee crisis: We would like to draw upon Solve's expertise and MIT's existing e-learning platform solutions to help deliver our emotional wellbeing curriculum to parts of the world that are lacking connectivity and digital support.
2. Content Development and Pilot Study: We see a natural partner with MIT's Early Childhood Cognition Lab to advise our platform's curriculum and resource development. Additionally, we aim to partner with educational institutions to research how effectively our platform fosters healing responses from children suffering from ptsd and trauma.
The types of connections and partnerships we would be most interested in if we became Solvers:
Solution Team
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Patricia Gerbarg MD No Limit Generation -
Samier Mansur No Limit Generation
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Yu Lin Shen No Limit Generation
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Our tagline:
We believe that the world's forgotten children can rise & thrive. We're here to help them reach their full potential.