GIRLS@PHOENIXSPACE

Less than 24% of secondary school age refugee girls living in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan attend schools and less than 6% of Syrian women are employed/economically active in this region.

Girls@PhoenixSpace initiative focuses on space science, teaching a unique skill set, furthering opportunities in higher education and employment, and encouraging teenage girls to create solutions to everyday social and economical challenges.

Our solution is multidimensional - providing STEM and soft skills in diverse empowering learning environments combined with follow up programs, public awareness campaigns, and community awareness initiatives to secure project success and scaling. We believe enabling girls to actively participate and shape experiments such as launching a satellite can inspire more young women to pursue STEM education.

STEM education programs such as ours can foster the spirit of innovation and technological inclusion of girls, empowering them to shape their future and the future of their communities.

For millions of refugee girls education remains an aspiration, not a reality. Of the estimated 1 million registered Syrian refugee youth aged 15-24, 32% are of upper secondary age. The school enrolment rate for Syrian girls of this age is under 25% in most host countries. Female refugee representation in STEM-related fields of study and work in this region is almost non-existent.

The cultural and socioeconomic reasons for educational exclusion deepen further in the pandemic. Globally, an estimated 10 million secondary school-aged girls could be out of school after the COVID-19 crisis has passed. 

Girls and boys face different educational barriers, early marriage being a main one for young women. In Lebanon 41% of young displaced Syrian women were married before 18. In some Turkish refugee camps, this number was over 60%. Married Syrian refugee girls face similar consequences as other child brides: health, mental and social issues, violence, limited education and economic opportunities. 

Education is perceived as a luxury or a burden by displaced families mostly preoccupied with basic safety and economic survival. However, this situation can be reversed — with skills and tools received by Girls@PhoenixSpace, girls can become confident and empowered economical and social actors.

Providing free and inspiring online and blended (online and practical) educational courses, linked by the theme of space science. Students will participate in exciting and cutting-edge experiments like sending high-altitude balloons or a satellite to space — a practical application that no traditional schooling methods provide. 

At the end of our core program, teenage girls will be confident in their abilities to perform small engineering tasks, code apps, and create software, while confidently collaborating with boys. We will work with our local partners to provide Phoenix Graduates with tangible educational and employment opportunities (mentoring, higher education funding, internships), and provide parents with assistance and role models to promote the importance of girls’ education.

Building and launching a satellite is no small feat. We believe that visibility campaigns and stories of girls from refugee communities sending a satellite to space can have a tremendous impact on changing the perception of girls’ education in target communities. 

We believe that an inspiring STEM program, combined with media visibility and ecosystem of tech and academia partners to further scale the project can not only help boost STEM educational opportunities for girls but also positively influence refugees' perception globally.

At Girls@PhoenixSpace we work with mostly Syrian refugee girls in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. We have chosen a target age group (15-18) as it is a crucial age for girls in deciding their futures with the opportunity cost of continuing education in particular becoming high. 

We currently work with seven trusted local partners, who regularly interact and collect feedback  from the girls and their families so we better understand individual and collective needs. 

We believe in a mixed class environment where we can contribute to changing gender role biases in the community in an organic way. However, we have been addressing all parental and cultural concerns regarding girls safety both in physical and online environments. Also presenting parents with the results of their daughters' work showed to be an effective persuasion factor to keep girls' presence in the project.

The students are active shapers of the theoretical as well as practical curriculum, deciding on experiments aboard high-altitude balloons and the satellite. Inspired by human-centered design we adjust the program according to students' needs and their circumstances.

Our solution aims at combating girls' economical and warfare displacement, providing them with skills and tools to pursue further education and employment.

Teaching girls from refugee communities skills in mathematics, electronics, engineering, coding and project management, combined with English lessons, mentoring, leadership and entrepreneurship will not only improve digital literacy in this marginalised group, but also empower the girls as active shapers of the global technological future.

Combination of practical and soft skills obtained by our students supported by collaborations aimed at successful enrolment of high-school age girls at universities and program graduates obtaining skilled jobs opportunities lie at the heart of our program.

Girls@PhoenixSpace is a unique program that goes beyond traditional teaching. Using the theme of applied space science, and a blended format combining online and physical teaching both inside and outside classrooms makes it ‘pandemic proof’. Our 'learning by building' approach keeps students engaged and expectant of the program’s innovative peaks — the high-altitude balloon launches and the launch of a CubeSat into space.

STEM education programs for refugee girls have been run by platforms such as Sonbola NGO, IDEO, Re-Coded and Malala Foundation, among others. What differentiates Girls@PhoenixSpace is our focus on space science as a vehicle for delivering an inspiring curriculum. Girls are able to experience real-life applications of science, motivating them to pursue careers in STEM fields. 

PhoenixSpace aspires to be a platform that enables businesses, tech companies and academia to contribute towards creating inspiring educational and employment opportunities for young refugees. 

In launching the satellite into space, partially assembled by our students, we bring together science, technology, art and humanitarianism in a unique and wide-reaching awareness campaign, contributing to solving the humanitarian crisis.

Our custom made curriculum will be open-source and online, creating possibilities for reuse and repurposing of our education material, scaling our program across other disadvantaged communities and in future crises.

We place importance on creating a caring ecosystem of STEM and soft skills combined with mentoring to guide girls in making better future life choices, while also growing their capabilities in a safe environment. 

Phoenix Space brings together diverse technologies to provide a comprehensive range of skills to young refugee girls in an engaging manner. We promote a blended format of learning, the theoretical parts of the curriculum are partially covered with online lessons and practical aspects explored during physical intensive learning camps. 

Our main technologies include MIT scratch, Arduino, Robotics, Engineering, Raspberry Pi, high-altitude balloon launches, MOOCs and proprietary satellite-designing software (BeeKit) provided by Open Cosmos .

We are building a customized LMS to offer a range of space science courses to a wider cohort of students and publishing lectures by famous scientists followed by Q&A. We have also implemented a simplified curriculum delivery format, accessible on basic equipment (smartphones).

We will put a satellite into orbit with a humanitarian agenda. The payload will feature an experimental component co-programmed by students and a unique interactive art installation as part of the payload. The integration of an art piece is intended to attract a broader audience to the humanitarian cause and drive media attention, allowing us to grow support for our educational work. The satellite will include a camera that records footage of Earth and the artwork in space and broadcasts this back to Earth. This content will be available via our mobile App, which will allow users to view the images taken by the satellite, interact with the on-board art installation, and track the satellite via an Augmented Reality experience.

Raspberry Pi has been used in orbit and on high-altitude balloons, and has a large community and hardware ecosystem. It has an HD camera which we have tested to a height of ~30km.

Arduino has large-scale use commercially, as an educational tool, academically, and has a large community. The Arduino serves as a meeting point between electronics, programming and science where all three subjects are taught using this cheap, versatile and powerful microcontroller. The Arduino can be connected to the Raspberry Pi, acting as a sensor hub, working as one device. We will use a mixture of softwares in our teaching: 

Scratch - to introduce concepts and demystify programming; online platforms such as Code Academy to teach Python with our own tasks and exercises, Arduino IDE to program hardware and Google Sheets to teach mathematics and increase employability. This mixture of multiple platforms gives exposure and experience, and builds confidence. 

Imaging/Sensor and GIS/Geospatial Technology will be incorporated into balloon launches to plot environmental data against space and time. This allows our students to investigate the changing physics and environment as the experiment nears space. 

Internet of Things - the sensors in our classes will share readings with each other and the world, allowing our students to compare data from different sites in real-time.

Robotics and Drones - we will be testing our hardware using drones, then high-altitude balloons.

Augmented Reality will be used in Phoenix App to make the satellite launch more engaging. 

If we provide girls in refugee communities with empowering quality education, it will broaden their perspective of choices in life, whether it is by pursuing further education or contributing to the economic and social well-being of their family/community.

Through interviews and contact with refugee youth before Phoenix Space was created, we learnt to understand the local context and develop cultural sensitivity to collaborate effectively with stakeholders. After a few months of prototyping, we have adapted our learning model by shifting to different platforms and including local perspectives.

By elaborating and scaling solutions in collaboration with partners, alongside our educational program, we will improve short-term inclusion of our beneficiaries and their families in technological, educational and employment opportunities. Girls@PhoenixSpace aims promote continuing education for participants, access to employment opportunities and discourage child marriage. With this in mind, we consider the program's success as having at least 60% female graduates and at least half of the girls pursuing further education or employment within the STEM or digital fields.

We focus on tackling SDG4. We keep in mind our goal and believe in the power of education. Nevertheless, we fully understand our assumptions and the obstacles surrounding girls’ empowerment in these communities, which act as impediments for better economical development and social inclusion. After completing the first phase of the program, we will be better able to assess these assumptions and adjust accordingly to provide girls with more tools and energy to navigate through their circumstances in a more empowered and informed manner.

Girls@PhoenixSpace has girl participants at the core. In the long term, we expect to contribute to greater social justice and gender equality and help the young women to 'achieve a fully developed personality' as established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Currently and in one year:

• Currently we are serving 140 students with our blended STEM program (5 centers already operating, 2 of 7 centers yet to start operating due to COVID-19). 

• We are planning to serve at least 1000 students using our open source online STEM curriculum by the end of 2021. 

• This autumn we will launch a series of 10 online lectures with renowned scientists and writers (translated to Arabic) to give a general overview of developments in science, to engage around 120 refugee students as active Q&A participants and to reach around 10,000 passive users in 2021. 

• With our satellite related awareness mobile app, we plan to reach at least at 1000 users in 2021 and 100000 in 5 years. 

• There are at least 10 teachers with refugee backgrounds that will benefit from our program (revenue, training, exposure) in the first year.

In five years we aim to:

• Serve 100000 students, 60% of them being girls, by combined means of open-source curriculum implemented locally and online courses (MOOCs)

• Train and provide teaching opportunities for 1000 refugee teachers with 50% of them being young women.

Upcoming year:

• At least 120 out of 140 students complete our 12 months space science pilot program.

• Launch the satellite co-built by our students with an interactive art installation to attract a broader audience to the refugee education subject.

• Launch Phoenix online learning platform with MOOCs in Arabic (November 2020) and work with established partners to make them widely available.

• Provide all of our students with extra classes/mentoring (one-to-one mentoring for further job/education, entrepreneurship and leadership classes, free online English classes, etc.) and create an ecosystem of educational services available to students via smartphone.

• Create an awareness campaign including girls' success stories and promoting parent role models to encourage girls’ education.

• Create a unique space science curriculum released open-source.

• Launch a series of popularized physics lectures by famous scientists.

• Launch mobile Phoenix App to allow a wider audience to interact with the satellite. The app will also serve as an awareness building and learning platform, potentially serving millions.

• Partnering with at least 20 local and international organizations to provide program beneficiaries with tangible educational and employment opportunities. 

In five years:

• Training and funding/crowdfunding 1000 refugee teachers to deliver our space science curriculum in the most marginalized refugee communities.

• Providing useful STEM skills to disprivileged and refugee communities worldwide, using free MOOCs. 

• Becoming a referent in the connection between science, technology, arts and humanitarian development through a platform that allows participation of organizations in these areas to develop solutions to the educational exclusion of refugee communities.

1. Being a young initiative our biggest barrier is a lack of funds and tested revenue model to further develop our products and scale, as well as a lack of business expertise.

Biggest of the external barriers we face are:

1. COVID-19 related restrictions that might not allow us to run physical intensive camps in some locations and further limit the participation of girls and boys in our programs due to economical reasons.

2. Deepening economic crisis in Lebanon, and potential crisis in Turkey or Jordan due to COVID-19 and other economical impacts, that will force our students to drop out of the program to earn a living.

3. Girls dropping out of the program due to cultural and social gender norms (getting married, household work).

1. Developing a multifaceted sustainability strategy involving fundraising, partnerships and corporate engagement. Partner with established organisations that can assist us with their expertise and resources in project development.

2. Running intensive camps at a later date or delivering some practical components to student’s homes to run practical classes via online means.

3. Providing parents with vouchers for necessity products. Adjust the online learning and provide additional mentoring, according to the children’s schedule, if they get employment. Potential fundraising for individual cases, to ensure the kids stay at school and at our program.

4. Constant engagement and communication with parents, via initiatives such as Positive Parenting that builds trust in the project’s activities, safeguarding policies that respect cultural sensitivities. Involvement of our current students and their parents to spread the word about the program and provide references to new recruits and their families.

Being a young agile organisation we are still in the process of developing our organisational model. So far we have been working as a nonprofit,  being an adopted charity of a bigger organisation in the UK. 

Phoenix Space Education Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, Company Number: 12340748.  Phoenix Space is an Adopted Charity of Prospero World – a UK Registered Charity: 1163952.

Core staff (all our staff is working on a part-time or volunteering basis) - 12 people.

External staff (implementing partners and teachers), many of them volunteers - +20 people

External contractors and consultants - 20 people

We are a young international team composed of (80% female) professionals from all over the world (Germany, UK, Hong Kong, US, Mexico) combined with specialists and partners from our target areas (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan). Our founder has run social projects for many years in Turkey and has the local knowledge as well as a vast network of partners and supporters. We are a dedicated team of experienced professionals in fields of science, academy, education, technology, public policy, event and project management, cultural studies, corporate engagement and strategic communication. Additionally we work with trusted and experienced partners on the ground. We are also being advised by senior professionals from the social impact area.

We have worked with and are aware of the needs of participating communities in Istanbul and Gaziantep through our team members’ work at partner organisations - The Gazi Research Project and Open Citadel. In the making of the short documentary “Pizza,Democracy and The Little Prince” and “The Syrian Twin Teenagers That Educate Their Ghetto” we worked with refugee children to understand their hopes and needs.

In addition, The Gazi Research Project have conducted research about the economic opportunities available to the community, and organised events at universities around the perception of refugee identity.

Being a young organization (less than a year old), having launched our project in the last 6 months, we have already reached 7 centers in 3 countries, proving a strong impactful prototype that has grown organically and adapted and survived through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Phoenix Space is part of the 'Call to Orbit' readiness program run by Open Cosmos and the European Space Agency. As a first of its kind, thanks to this collaboration, the program will culminate with an in-orbit experiment aboard a satellite, where the students will build, test and use the apparatus to take useful data from low-earth orbit.

Other local and international partners include:

• The Gazi Research Project: community outreach partner

• Open Citadel: media partner

• Arduino, Orion Games and MeeTIT, B2Space: technology partners.

• Akademeia Foundation and Nativated:  educational partners, providing extra educational services (ex. free online English classes)

• Ninja Coders, Turkey Volunteers, Small Projects Istanbul and Hasan Kalyoncu University: our local implementing partners in Turkey

• Karam Foundation:  our local implementing partner in Turkey and Jordan

• War Child, SeedJordan and Luminous Shamal Start: our planned local implementing partners in Jordan

• St Paul Center: our local implementing partner in Lebanon

• Moving Worlds: experteering partner
  

• We have also received an interest from Imperial College London as well as The Center for Space, Time and the Quantum and we are currently exploring partnership possibilities.

We are also being advised by senior figures such as Ambassador Farukh Amil - former Ambassador to the UN from Pakistan and Rosalind Copisarow - Partner at SeedJordan, Microfinance innovator and former board member of the World Bank’s Microfinance Policy Advisory Board.

Phoenix Space was born to provide an innovative solution to improving displaced people’s lives and to enable refugee youth to co-create a more just society. We deliver an open source technologically based innovation to provide quality STEM education, especially for vulnerable populations. We are currently delivering this curriculum mainly through our partners, with whom we share the know-how, train their teachers and continuously ask for feedback. We monitor classes online and are involved in the intensive camps logistics to prepare for the space experiments.

We have identified girls as our main clients due to their double vulnerability. We empower them through a cohesive program, including a series of services that will facilitate them pursuing further education or gaining more financial independence by following STEM related occupations instead of performing housework or manual jobs.

The service (the program) is delivered through different channels, an online platform, in class experiments, flag projects (launching the satellite and high-altitude balloons) and the students can continue self education with our direct and indirect mentoring.  Our agile approach and collaboration with partners are aimed at widening the range of services we can provide to enhance the opportunities of our students in education and employment.

Another potential benefit for young refugee women can be found in Phoenix Space’s mission of delivering global awareness of their capabilities through media campaigns, educational events, scientific articles and promoting social inclusion in their host communities.

Although we currently rely on grants and in-kind donations for the execution of the prototype, Girls@PhoenixSpace is already developing possible strategies for financial sustainability. We understand that turning into a social business can be challenging, but our approach is to maintain PhoenixSpace’s key identity of adaptability and resourcefulness to achieve the sustainability and continue our mission. 

We believe in a combined solution that involves investment capital and strategic partnership building. In the future we aim to be able to fully run without the need for grants. 

We are developing a monetization strategy for the Phoenix App intended to support our awareness campaign. We are also currently exploring possibilities with Open Cosmos and Imperial College London in conducting an experiment on board of the satellite which may attract potential funding opportunities. Our ideas include integrating a “COVID-protocol compliant” tourism program, including a site visit for sponsors and high-net worth individual donors. 

However, we are avoiding selling our flagship curriculum in determination to fulfill and continue Phoenix Space’s mission of creating an open source learning hub in which anyone and everyone has access to knowledge without having to pay for this education. 

As a financial solution we are working to build up a stronger network with whom we can share costs and value of the program. We are continuously working towards creative ways to gain a continuous cash-flow to support and scale our educational initiatives.

Phoenix Space is on the lookout for long-term strategic partnerships, potential investors and specialized mentoring from experienced organizations or individuals in the field.

We understand that Solve is not just another way of funding, but a community that can help us obtain the exposure needed in different sectors that could be interested in our tech-learning initiative with a special focus on solving a gender issue in a vulnerable community.  

We believe in the work we are doing and in the power of the talented pool of various social innovation global actors that Solve is bringing together. 

We are applying to Solve, expecting to become part of the amazing network that is being built. Phoenix Space would be greatly benefited by specialized mentoring on how to better develop a scalable strategy, one in which our programs could be best implemented for optimal learning results and social impact. 

Aside from all the expertise building benefits that Solve provides, we are excited to get to know organizations going through similar experiences than ours, we would love to hear about their journeys and learn from their global paths. As a young venture, Phoenix Space is still building and learning by doing, and is willing to share the adventure of creating this open source learning project for a better common future.

It is imperative to provide the underprivileged youth with the technological and scientific literacy that would place them on par with their peers in other parts of the world. We look for strategic partners in the sciences and tech sectors with a shared innovative vision to empower refugee youth to create their own solutions to everyday challenges. 

A robust network of partners and board members is a high organizational priority; to provide strategic guidance and deliver our mission. The board members would have new or strengthened connections and shared resources and knowledge to offer the core Phoenix Space team. This would help build new business development opportunities and strategic partnerships with cross-sectoral industries and government entities, leading to a stronger collective impact on the strategic pathway. Local leaders would provide greater visibility and influence the agendas and policies related to youth education in these core countries for immediate impact. 

We look for partnerships to expand our network of teachers and mentors, particularly among the professionals in the refugee communities, providing them both with income creating as well as internships opportunities, engaging them in empowering their communities' youth. 

We also look for support in piloting and scaling our online platform, as well as create additional courses and lectures series for arabic speaking youth. We would be excited to partner with technology giants with a dedication towards building an equitable workforce pipeline like LinkedIn, Google and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. We aim to collaborate with MOOC companies like Coursera, EdX, General Assembly, Springboard UX Bootcamp and similar platforms to promote our educational courses. We also plan to partner strategically with nonprofits with a historical record for impacting this segment, including Upwardly Global or Girls Who Code. 

We would also like to partner with:

• Strada Education Network of Strada Institute for the Future of Work to potentially leverage their expertise in the US and apply their practices to the hosting communities in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. 

• HUS Institute to explore ways of navigating digital transformation and impact on the (often conservative) displaced communities in Turkey and Middle East, particularly ensuring the inclusion of the underprivileged youth in the global technological future. 

• MIT Sloan School of Management, to develop a monetization strategy for Phoenix App and the satellite which will be partially assembled by our students and launched by ESA and Open Cosmos.

We believe we are fit for the Andan Prize because our solutions promote resilience and self-reliance within refugee youth, prioritizing female empowerment through STEM literacy. 

Youth in our classes becomes a team, we aim to create a safe space in hopes of creating an integrated classroom that doesn’t fix performance on gender or ethnical origin. We also understand the need for youth integration within their own communities.

At Girls@PhoenixSpace we believe it is imperative to provide refugee youth with the technological and scientific literacy that would place them on par with their local peers and with those in more privileged parts of the world. We see technology acting as the accelerator for shaping the innovative creative minds that empower youth to create their own solutions to everyday social, economical and political challenges. 

Free, accessible, guided, interactive and inspiring STEM education opens doors for displaced youth to further educational and employment opportunities, helping them become active and resilient members of society in their hosting countries. 

We recognise the importance of the larger community in promoting integration and inclusion of refugees. Our awareness campaigns will cast refugees as capable and valuable members of society. 

If awarded The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion, we would use it to finalize our prototype and adapt our solution for further scale. We would use funds to develop the online learning platform and finance the costs of preparing for the satellite launch experiments, done by refugee students.

Education is crucial to develop a voice of our own and we are all deserving of it. Still, access to education among refugee girls faces logistical and safety obstacles, these become bigger when they try to pursue secondary education. 

Our unique STEM tech-focused educational program built around the theme of space science, teaches girls fundamental concepts in sciences and also allows them to participate in cutting edge experiments like sending high-altitude balloons or a satellite to space. At the end of our core program, teenage girls will be confident in their abilities to perform small engineering tasks, code apps and create software, while collaborating with boys. 

The Innovation for Women Prize will contribute to funding operation costs for PhoenixSpace educational program, including intensive weekly camps where girls will participate in partial assembly of a satellite, to be launched at the conclusion of the pilot project. 

Engaging girls in STEM is crucial for the careers of the future, making girls active economic agents and contributors to development of their communities. STEM education also helps develop crucial critical thinking and life skills girls need to adjust to uncertain future, to challenge discrimination and stand up to violence.

Our goal is to give girls science and tech tools to apply in future education and employment, while opening perceptions about women’s roles and aspirations. Through continuous mentoring and sharing positive outcomes with the wider community, we address cultural norms, creating awareness of the importance of educating girls as a way to empower communities.

This is a prize we believe we qualify for in every way. Our project description perfectly fits with what GM is looking for as we promote girl empowerment through teaching Science Space and programming skills in vulnerable communities mainly composed of refugees. 

The GM Prize would allow us to kick-off the program in centers where we have not been able to launch the prototype. We are set and ready to go, but still lack the funds that secure a correct center performance. 

We must say that for us the support of General Motors can become a key milestone towards achieving our goal. The real prize goes beyond monetary support - it is an opportunity to receive mentorship from the best engineers to scale our platforms and design them with an expanded purpose. We are currently focusing on space science as a connector to generate interest between girls and STEM but there is flexibility to innovate and diversify the program to broaden the portfolio of skills already taught by Phoenix Space. We are open to explore additional girls empowerment pathways with automotive experts passionate for girl and women education.

Our project aims to achieve a digitally literate society. We are working on elaborating informal education systems that make education and technology accessible for marginalised groups. We believe that STEM education, combining various digital technologies can be an effective way of increasing digital literacy among children as well as adults and cause them to become more innovative and entrepreneurial citizens.

We would be very interested to adopt the space science curriculum we are developing towards young adults' education. We will release our educational program open source for disprivileged communities worldwide and we would be happy to adjust it to the needs of displaced groups in Portugal. In addition, we are developing a collaborative platform for technology, art science, education and corporate sectors, currently in the project revolving around interactive art installation as part of the payload of the satellite we will launch. Such a cross-sectional ecosystem of combining different technologies, sectors and working with multiple partners to secure a successful journey to economically and socially empower teenagers and their communities by the means of space science could be used as a model for a similar young adult oriented program in Portugal. Additionally, Phoenix Head Project Manager already has experience in running large-scale projects in Portugal and she is fluent in Portuguese.

We would be thrilled to be awarded the Gulbenkian Award and be able to expand our project to marginalised adults in Portugal.