What is the name of your organization?
Ambessa
What is the name of your solution?
Ambessa
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Offline STEM kits co-designed with refugee youth to spark hands-on learning, creativity, and confidence in crisis settings.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
New York, NY, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
USA
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
58 million children are out of school globally, and over half of them live in contexts of conflict and displacement (Dryden-Peterson, 2022; OWD, 2022; World Bank, 2022). Refugee children are not only denied access to quality education, they are also denied agency, consistency, and tools for imagining a future.
Most are displaced for prolonged periods—78% of refugees are in exile for at least five years (UNHCR, 2019), and the majority (72%) remain in countries neighboring their own (UNHCR, 2021), where education systems are under-resourced and overstretched.
STEM education in these settings is virtually nonexistent. Most learning is didactic, passive, and screen-based—if it exists at all. Yet, research shows that spatial reasoning and hands-on building are crucial for long-term STEM success (Wai et al., 2009; Byrne et al., 2023).
We believe that every child, regardless of circumstance, deserves access to joyful, hands-on learning that builds real-world skills. That’s why Ambessa exists: to close the STEM gap in crisis settings with playful, practical learning tools that work offline, without electricity, internet, or stable classrooms.
What is your solution?
Ambessa creates offline STEM kits co-designed with refugee and displaced youth. Our flagship kit teaches children how to build their own hand-powered flashlight, no internet, electricity, screens, or prior knowledge required.
Each kit includes electronic components e.g. LEDs, capacitors, and patent-pending connectors that snap together safely and intuitively. Children wind a small motor by hand for three minutes to generate 30 minutes of light. As they build, they explore core STEM concepts like energy, circuits, and sustainability through illustrated guides. The entire experience is designed to be joyful, empowering, and intuitive, accessible to children in shelters, classrooms, or homes, whether alone or in small groups.
Our kits are hardware-first, fully offline, and built for the realities of conflict and displacement. They’re compact, durable, biodegradable, and require no tools or supervision and were co-created with children across camps in France, Hungary, and Ethiopia, whose lived experiences shaped every feature.
We also sustain our model through global sales. For every kit purchased by a family or school, we donate one to a displaced child.
Demo: www.ambessaplay.com
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Ambessa serves refugee and displaced children ages 8 to 15 who are out of school or learning in extremely limited environments: tents, shelters, and informal classrooms, often without teachers, electricity, or even pencils. These children are not only cut off from traditional education, they are often denied the chance to create, build, or play.
We involve these children directly in designing our kits. Afghan girls in Calais, Ukrainian kids in Hungary, Eritrean youth in Ethiopia, they all shaped how the kits work, what they teach, and how they feel.
Ambessa gives children the chance to build something useful with their own hands. The process teaches science and engineering concepts, but it also builds pride, confidence, and a sense of possibility. The kits require no internet, electricity, or adult supervision, they are made to work anywhere.
Every kit sold funds one donated to a child in crisis. Our solution turns kids who are typically treated with less dignity, into co-builders, inventors, and problem solvers.
