Code Hope

Educating children at risk through digital tools and healthy behaviors for a productive use of the internet.

According to SOS Children's Village International and the UNICEF, there are more than 151 million children (18 years old or younger) without parental caring worldwide. Contrary to popular belief, becoming orphaned is not the primary driving factor of this problem. Risk factors include poverty, poor health of parents, socio-cultural factors (migration, urbanization, youth pregnancy, etc.), violence, and political and economical factors (armed conflict and natural disasters. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), family breakdown due to the aforementioned factors are part of a set of situations that can lead to the death of these children at risk. 

The main risk factor for family crises that lead to family breakdown and child abandonment in Africa, Asia and Latin America is poverty. The list of each factor and its incidence level is the following:

• Poverty (62%)
• Death of one of the parents (13%)
• Family with many children (8%)
• Instability of parents' relationship (5%)
• Parent in poor health (4%)
• Other (8%)

Poverty, violence and family breakdown create a vicious cycle. A consequence of this is that children at risk often find unhealthy solutions to their need of personal well-being and emotional development. The abuse of alcohol and drugs, criminal behavior, and participation in gangs are common responses to the lack of emotional support and family breakdown. However, in the past years, internet addiction and the non-productive use of tech tools have become a new consequence of this problem. As an example, in China, there are rehab centers for children that are addicted to online gaming. The Chinese experts mention that family breakdown is the main cause of this problem in children and teenagers. 

This relation between family breakdown and non-productive use of the internet is becoming more visible in countries where technological innovation and internet penetration is high. But, in other regions where tech innovation is low, the non-productive use of the internet is already affecting local communities and nobody has noticed it. 

Code Hope is a program that provides an effective solution to two problems that are related: i) the non-productive use of internet by children at risk and ii) the development of socio-emotional skills and reinforcement of family ties. Through an immersive 4-month coding boot camp in web development and personal growth workshops, we will transform the lives of children and we will teach them the skills they need to succeed in the knowledge economy. We are launching our pilot in July 2018 in the district of Jose Leonardo Ortiz that belongs to the province of Chiclayo (Peru). This district has a population of 161,717 inhabitants. The 65% of Jose Leonardo Ortiz's inhabitants are migrants from the Andes or the Amazon region. This district also has the lowest HDI of the province and concentrates 60% of the crime in Chiclayo. 

We believe that this project is scalable in other provinces in Peru and countries around the world. We are building a powerful program that will give hope to the 151 million children at risk worldwide. 

The fast pace of tech development is affecting our lives in ways that we did not imagine in the past. Innovative countries are able to see the transformation of their societies in a more clear way. However, countries that are lagging behind are having problems to track these new challenges and to understand how technology affects their most vulnerable populations. Code Hope presents a solution that will transform the lives of the future generations by developing the tech and socio-emotional skills of children at risk, the most vulnerable population in emerging countries. 

As we have mentioned, Code Hope has observed that children at risk are using internet and tech tools in non-productive ways. Considering that they are digital natives and that electronic devices are part of their lives, we are teaching them how to use these tools in a productive way in order to build personal and professional capabilities that allow them to get better jobs in the future. Also, they will also learn that these tech tools have risks and consequences for their health if they are not used adequately. We are teaching them to use technology effectively. 

Our goals for the next 12 months are the following:

• To validate our value proposition through our pilot 
• To develop a structure and organizational capabilities that allow us to scale our program
• To establish a set of KPIs that allow us to measure our impact
• To strengthen our existing partnerships with the local government, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders
• To establish a partnership with a top university and a top tech firm
• To influence the Peruvian Ministry of Education in order to create a national policy regarding the development of tech and socio-emotional of vulnerable populations

Our vision for the next to three to five years is to have a proven concept that was able to set up operations in Latin America, Africa and Asia with strong and sustainable partnerships with national governments, multilateral institutions and top tech firms worldwide. This will allow us to transform the lives of these 151 million children at risk in order to enhance social values, to improve their tech skills and to make them employable in the knowledge and information economy. 

Due to the experience of Code Hope's founding members, we have already established the partnerships necessary to run the pilot. A local school, the provincial office of the Ministry of Education and a local university are already collaborating with us. The team has proven experience in the development of mechanisms that promote and encourage the participation of local communities and stakeholders. 

Our pilot will serve 35 people:

• 12 children (6 boys and 6 girls)
• 16 parents
• 7 teachers from the local school 

The children participate in a 4-month program that reinforces the value of family ties and an immersive coding bootcamp. In addition, parents and teachers also participate in workshops that emphasizes the importance of strong family ties, the benefits and risks of technology and its impact on their children's lives. 

Code Hope represents a new education model in marginalized urban areas. In the next 12 months, we expect to serve around 200 children through our coding and socio-emotional skill bootcamp, and 100 parents and 50 teachers through our workshops. In the next 3 years, to keep expanding our education model, we will pursue the following strategies: i) Scale-up to more mid-size and large cities in Latin America and China. ii) Influencing the development of local and national public policies that promote innovation in marginalized areas. iii) Expand training curriculum to further meet the demand of talent for the tech/digital industries.

The members of the team have experience in the social development field and tech, innovation and entrepreneurship. Ana Calderon and Monica Salazar are two professionals with more than 20 years of experience each in the social development and not-for-profit sectors. They have led projects related to women's empowerment, gender, family violence and children's rights financed by Save The Chidren, UNICEF, UNDP, etc. Luis Felipe Checa is a Schwarzman Scholar, founder of FINTUU Technologies, and a social entrepreneur. He has also volunteered in different organizations that promote quality of education and development of tech skills in Latin America and China.  

Code Hope has started as a non-profit. However, long-term sustainability is key for success. After the pilot, the team will decide between two structures: a hybrid or a social business. Ideally, we will open coding schools in the cities where we have operations in order to develop tech skills of children from middle income class families. This will give us the money necessary to provide scholarships to the children at risk. On the other hand, the hybrid model would also give us access to grants and funds from large multilateral institutions.

We are applying to Solve mainly because we want to raise awareness about the connection between family breakdown and non-productive use of the internet (internet addiction) and how this affects children at risk and poor communities. Second, Solve is a great platform that would help us to validate our idea internationally. Third, Code Hope would have access to different resources such as mentors, donors, investors and other institutions that can help us to enhance our organizational capabilities. Fourth, scalability and influence in public policy is a consequence of what we have mentioned above. 

We have identified the following key barriers:

• Funding in order to scale our impact
• Lack of awareness regarding the problem we are trying to solve
• Lack of a policy related to education and innovation in developing countries

Solve would help us to raise awareness of the situation of children at risk and the problems they are facing. Also, it would promote Code Hope as a program that can be replicated internationally. This would allow us to build the core competences needed to scale our impact worldwide.