Education for Sharing (E4S)

I am a Mexican social entrepreneur passionate about the ideas and the potential of children. My greatest passion revolves around the empowerment of students, teachers and families, to accompany them in the search for their purpose in the world. In 2007, I founded Education for Sharing (E4S) an international non-profit that forms better global citizens from childhood through the power of active play.

I have a degree in International Relations and a Master in Public Administration at Harvard. Also I’m an Ashoka and Edmund Hillary  Fellow, Vital Voices Lead, Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum and a member of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Community.

Furthermore, I received the 2018 Emerging Global Leader Award by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Also, I had represented Mexico in social development forums in Asia, Europe, America and the Middle East with the innovative model of E4S.

The overall state of education has moved slowly to respond efficiently to the speed of change. E4S methodology recognizes the importance of developing sustainable competencies to guarantee that children have the essential tools to solve the issues they are going to face in the near future. 

E4S approach transforms education by changing its outlook for a practical one. The main objective of education should rely on solving daily issues for building sustainable societies.

Education is the first step to elevate the humanity. The Covid-19 outbreak showed that society needs a holistic approach to achieve a better and empathetic coexistence. An innovative educational model has the potential of bringing teachers closer with the tools required to form the new leaders of tomorrow with an ethical perspective based on civic values.

E4S works on versatile contexts, that share the following challenges: 

1. Educational systems that don’t respond to current social challenges: An UNICEF report of 2018, stated that students from 13 to 15 years are facing peer-to-peer violence in and around school. Educational authorities, don’t have the tools to responding to students whose lives are challenged by social issues, such as violence.  Other social problems - vandalism, school violence, and the dropout rate - are exacerbated when students don't develop a sense of belonging to schools.

2. Educators who lack of teaching methods to make learning a channel that responds to the needs and characteristics of their students: According to the 2018 data of OECD, 33% of teachers of the country members, report that they don't feel able to handle the challenges of a diverse classroom (OECD report, 2018).

A traditional school program, doesn’t pay enough attention on the variety of intelligences.Children learn the basic theory, without being protagonists in their learning process. This type of education discourages students, since they don’t see how what has been learned, can be applied to their daily activities. If kids don’t find relevance in their syllabus, important concepts may be seemed unnecessary to learn.

E4S is an educational innovation based on the power of active play that provides tools to make learning in a fun and an easy way for both teachers and students, considering that there is a lack of knowledge about relevant changes that are happening in the world.

The main goal of the E4S educational model is the holistic development of the 21st century students. E4S pedagogical methodology improves children's mastery of the key competencies for sustainability, such as problem-solving, collaboration, self-awareness and systemic thinking in the school context.

E4S strategy focuses heavily on train teachers on new pedagogical tools which can be used not only during the implementation of the E4S programs´ but also in the rest of their regular activities. Furthermore, educators are trained to use social-emotional learning, which has been proven to encourage positive interactions and participation within the classroom.

From the school and family context to local businesses and international corporations, entire communities are benefited with E4S ludic methodology. Within the implementation model, activities and special sessions are design with the aim to invite families, entrepreneurs and social leaders to share their capabilities and experiences to contribute in a global citizenship formation.  

From remote communities to larger cities, E4S is present in vulnerable contexts with high indexes of social issues like violence, corruption and apathy that limit the development of citizenship. E4S programs are designed for children and adolescents from 6 to 15 years old and their teachers, from versatile educational centers (public and private schools, indigenous shelters, parks, specialized care centers, etc.)

E4S engages children’s families in their development so they are included into the transformation process by acquiring competencies for sustainability - systemic thinking, collaboration, problem solving, etc - and contribute to the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda.

Moreover, E4S is aware of the importance of joining efforts with local and international business to generate a shared well-being that directly impacts on communities, from engaging them to the program’s implementation in schools to include corporate volunteering.

E4S is a good fit for the selected dimension, by promoting an education that is forming the next generation of global citizens, who are aware of their potential and how the world around them works. 

Leveraging the power of play, more children, teachers, parents and community leaders respect and value diversity. They develop competencies for sustainability that will help them contribute from a local and global level. These true agents of change are willing to make the world a more sustainable place by their own actions.

13 years ago, Yizreel Urquijo and I, founded E4S with the conviction that the power of play is the channel to form better global citizens from childhood. The operations started in a small indigenous community in Mexico, benefiting 243 children. 

After three years of the first implementation, the program Initiatives for Sharing was created. By then, we had already impacted the lives of more than 65 thousand people. Due to the success and impact, the internationalization process was launched to export the E4S model to the United States, Argentina, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic. 

In 2015, two new programs - Science and Arts for Sharing - were added to the educational offer benefiting over one thousand educational centers.

By 2018, the organization managed to impact the first million of beneficiaries and increased its educational offer with the addition of two programs: Digital Citizenship and Finance for Sharing. That same year, E4S launched operations in New Zealand and in 2019 the methodology arrived to Bolivia.

For this 2020, E4S will design a program for early childhood and launch the pilot of a digital education program in alliance with ProFuturo that will take the play methodology to Europe and Africa.

I identify two main drivers behind doing what I love: 

1. My family’s history escaping anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe: I was born in Mexico, where I grew up appreciating the opportunity to live in a pacific country without ongoing ethnic conflict. I learned  that every child deserves the right to grow up with a quality education where conflict is not the norm. This shaped my approach to education; I believe that being proud of your background should be compatible with learning and appreciating the others’ one.

2. My passion for a different kind of education: Growing up I had trouble focusing in very traditional school settings. I was an active child, that learned best when employing all my senses; sitting in the classroom taking down notes prevented me from being able to really engage with important topics. 

I wanted to create an educational model that could teach valuable lessons, in a fun, healthy, and inclusive way. My participation in the Ship for World Youth in 2007, was a milestone in my career. I was very inspired by educational initiatives I learned about there. When I came back, I founded E4S with the aim of positively propel children's potential, energy and enthusiasm.

Coming from a Jewish family and growing up in Mexico, has sensibilized me of the power that kindness brings. When I was a teen, I worked as a volunteer with young people with different abilities. They taught me a lot about the possibilities of the human being. After that, I participated as a leader in children's camps, where I discovered play as path for meaningful learning.  

Throughout my professional career, I’ve realized that educational systems were not designed for effective learning, therefore there was a need to create meaningful experiences for all learners. Under that statement, I have been active in the promotion and creation of different initiatives to raise awareness and empowering others with energy and proactivity, being E4S my playground to do this. 

E4S has teach me a lot, from budget managing to market expansion planning. Those skills had help me to achieve E4S financial sustainability and growth for the past 13 years.  

I have lead with my heart and on the way I have met and engage with more than a hundred of social leaders from diverse backgrounds and studies areas. My staff is one of the most conscientious and motivating team. 

I’m a great team-builder and skilled at social navigation and networking, passionate, tenacious and hard working with a deep and sustained commitment to promoting a global education. My biggest mission is to harness the potential of education to help children realize their own power to be global citizens. 

The current pandemic of COVID-19 has been a major challenge for all, especially for non-profits.

The majority of funding is delivered to tackle the consequences of the outbreak among society. E4S’s has maintained financial stability through partnerships with different companies offering digital materials to spread awareness of the importance of heath to prevent children and their families of being infected. 

Also, my team and I have developed digital audiovisuals to promote the responsible use of technology as it is our current main channel to communicate with others. 

Moreover, we have established alliances with the private sector to work with their employees to teach them the new normality norms for maintaining a healthy and safe environment using E4S civic values as a framework to build a better coexistence.

Regardless of the circumstances, E4S has been a resilient organization that is looking for better strategies to deliver its educational model remotely without losing the quality of the in-person modality.

My childhood was characterized by independence, joy and a spirit of adventure. When I was 12, I began as a volunteer at a non-profit and few years later I became part of a Jewish movement similar to girl scouts that promoted the practiced of values.  

My academic path was partly a response to my thirst of knowledge about the world. When I was about to graduate, I was selected by the Japanese Government to participate in the Ship For World Youth, which promotes cultural understanding between 300 young participants from around the world.

After participating, my goal was to apply all I've learned. In 2007, I started with E4S even though the first companies I looked for establishing a partnership hesitated about me being too young to succeed. 

My commitment to improve education was bigger than the obstacles ahead. One step at a time I built one of the most strong not-profits in Mexico that now it's on its way to become a worldwide educational reference.

I have been able to share E4S methodology in international forums. Currently my team and I are working on a series of Masterclasses to share the power of play in times of crisis.

The E4S model has revolutionized traditional educational systems by using a play-reflect-act framework that encourages educators to teach dynamically, promote children’s participation and let them apply the tools learned. This model opens the dialogue between children and teachers on issues that seem complex to understand - such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals - so they become part of the solution.

• Play: children understand complex issues in a fun and accessible way.

• Reflect: children analyze problems related to local and global challenges. 

• Act: children take individual actions to solve problems in their context. 

Learning through play, generates a safe environment where children can share reflections and postures, in a freer way.

For example, climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. E4S developed an idea of how this process is appealing to children because of the precise effects it has on their daily lives. One of E4S most popular games, “The Dance of Global Warming,” represents this situation very clearly: There are three symbolic islands of different size delimited by ropes. Children will be dancing a song, when the song ends; they will have to “sail” to an island of their choice. Each time the music stops, the islands will become smaller and smaller until children cannot enter the islands. This represents the rise in the level of the oceans and how humanity will suffer in the event of the ocean’s level raising. To recover the islands, children must propose actions aimed at the protection of the climate.

Within the theory of change, E4S identify the need to activate in children an interest in knowing, participating and collaborating in matters related to their development, the environment in which they live and the world that surrounds them.

That statement, allow us to establish the foundation of the E4S's model, which is based on the socio-constructivist theory and in a playful approach.

The theory is characterized by focusing attention on the student as the main protagonist of the educational process. The premise is that children are the ones who build knowledge progressively, without disassociating themselves from the social context.

The second foundation is based on the playful approach. The E4S model recognizes the power of cooperative play as a tool that free children from competition, pattern repetition, discrimination, excessive pressure of efficiency and aggression.

Based on these foundations, the educational activities, the outputs and the outcomes of E4S consider triggering situations that enhance reflection, unlike traditional models that only consider the transmission and reproduction of knowledge. The theory of change contemplates the activities of:

• Design of educational programs linked to the SDGs and values for citizen training aimed at girls and boys in basic education;

• Training of an internal team of E4S (site facilitators), teachers and educators and;

• Implementation of playful sessions including a monitoring and follow-up process.

The outputs we obtain are teachers with playful tools to improve their pedagogical work and children who actively participate in playful sessions, being the main builders of learning. 

At the end of each intervention, the outcomes achieved are educational communities with teachers who replicate the methodology and are committed to forming agents of change; and children who actively participate in their immediate context.

Before the pandemic, E4S was implementing projects in more than 200 educational centers. As our operation in schools where suspended, our educational offer shift towards the digitalization of our content. In this couple of months, we have reached over one million of people: teachers, children and their parents. 

Once the educational authorities announce the opening of schools, by the rest of 2020, our programs will be benefiting over 50 thousand of children and teachers, fostering in them a citizenship education. 

Since 2007, E4S has impacted the lives of 1,272,223 people. For the following five years, E4S has the purpose to build the next generation of agents of change in more latitudes, reaching over 2 million of children and teachers around the globe. 

An approach that will help us to ensure the sustainability of E4S’s impact is strengthening teachers’ training. These year E4S is developing a program that will include technological resources to reinforce the teachers’ face to face training. We are one step ahead as the current health crisis has boost our creativity and potential to have our contents digitized. 

For the next five years, our team is working on a specialized training for early childhood educators. Its objective will be oriented to promote socioemotional and cognitive development for children between 3 to 6 years. E4S is aware that is critical to tackle this stage because every educational level that follows depends on it.

On a macro level and from an in-house analysis, E4S has found the following challenges: 

1. Current COVID-19 outbreak: E4S will have to overcome operational and financial milestones as a secondary effect of the contingency. For some of our current beneficiaries, the access to technology resources is limited. Financially, E4S has a current need to have not labelled funds that will allow to increase its liquidity contributing to the organization's financial stabilization to operate.

2. Resources: as a Mexican-based organization, changes in government and in public policies affects the fundraising of E4S, as there is a current need to shift funds that come from public institutions. 

3. External long-term evaluation: efforts have been made to measure long term impact of each program. As the organization keeps growing, there is the need to have an established process with external institutions to assess the program implementation worldwide.

1. Current COVID-19 outbreak: E4S is reinventing the educational offer, by launching digital content with the play-reflect-act methodology.  We are partnering with diverse allies to discover the best formula for providing a different kind of education, one that fulfill the need of the new normality and that is accessible for everyone. Currently, we are beginning these digital transformation along AT&T and Lego Foundation, and through an internal social media campaign, #AlsoAtHome, with which we have reached more than a million people. 

2. Resources: We have a strategic partnerships team that oversee the strategy of funds diversification. This has allowed us to build strong alliances with private and public institutions at the national and international level. These alliances are founded in order to build multi-year and multi-sector synergies for the next 5 years. 

For the international chapters, leaders in each country E4S operates, have developed their own sustainable financial models, so that in the future they have greater independence from the central offices.

3. External long-term evaluation: Each one of the implementation projects of our programs has been consistently evaluated. We have a detailed procedure and internal assessment methods to perform quantitative evaluations through input and output questionnaires that are answered by the beneficiaries to detect changes in attitudes, behaviors and knowledge. Additionally, we have conducted focus group interviews with our teacher beneficiaries and a follow-up qualitative studies with students who participated in our programs.

E4S has been partnering with public and private sectors to expand our skill set, resources and offerings.  

Educational public institutions are one of the long-lasting relationships that E4S has established in each country where we operate. For instance, the Mexican Ministry of Education has supported us by accessing public schools and with pedagogical resources so that our interventions aligned with the national syllabus. 

In recent years, E4S has secured multiannual contracts with diverse allies in order to provide educational experiences according to the needs of different generations. This year we will be launching a long-term implementation, with the support of the Mexican foundation, Tichi Muñoz. With them, we will start a 6-year project in which girls and boys will experience our six E4S educational programs.

Currently we are presenting the digital offer with several allies, with the aim of contributing to their social responsibility programs during the contingency, as well as to develop resilient attitudes for the return to the new normality. We have found committed allies like Lego and AT&T to boost the impact of these strategies. On this same axis, we will launch a partnership with the Mexican Presidential Office for the 2030 agenda, which is a governmental institution that oversees the fulfillment of the SDGs on a public level.  

Finally, for operations within public schools, we are teaming-up with: BBVA a bank entity; Smart Fit, one of the largest fitness Group in Latin America; Laureus Sport for Good, an international foundation; and Fechac, a Mexican Foundation. 

E4S programs are delivered thanks to our partners and through close collaboration with schools and local education authorities. This way of implementing, help us to assist, not only children but a whole educational system.

To be pertinent to the current educational syllabus, E4S asks schools to implement one specific program according to the interests and needs of its students. Teachers learn step-by-step how to use games to teach a particular curriculum. E4S operates through site facilitators, that helps teachers to align the curriculum of the program to the school subjects, to plan its implementation, to facilitate the session with their students and to conduct enter and exit surveys for an impact assessment.  

E4S provides schools with everything the essentials to impart and assess the programs; from play materials to an implementation guide per trained teacher. Also, students get an exercise booklet to write or draw what they learn and how they will use it in their everyday life. For principals, E4S offers tools that allow them to follow up on the teacher's accomplishments, and a model survey to measure the implementation results.

Additionally, the operative costs have been reduced, making the implementation cost-effective. This has been possible by using an economy scale model; for example, to implement one of E4S’s programs in the United States for 500 children it is required 6.82 dollars per child as the monthly investment. By contrast, for a group of 100 children, it would cost 10.04 dollars per child per month.

We are currently pursuing a diversification of financial sources strategy that contemplates:

• Alliances with private sector: Companies through their social responsibility or volunteering programs. 

• Individual donors: People that monthly donate an amount to increase E4S reach. Government entities: By building partnerships with federal and local authorities.

• International and local grants: E4S is also looking forward to establishing more relationships with philanthropic organizations globally. 

• Corporate services: For example, developing workshops for employees addressing SDGs or specific corporate values the companies are seeking to promote.

In order to achieve long-term sustainability, our E4S fundraising team is planning on using 2020 as a chance to build links with new enterprises, individuals, and government entities while establishing the organization as a leader of education in the countries where is present. 

E4S long-term goal is to be completely self-sufficient. Our organization has developed a solid funding strategy so the methodology keep reaching more communities worldwide.  

In order to benefit more people approaching latent challenges aligned to the global agenda, E4S is committed to maintaining and generating relationships with public and private institutions at the national and international level. 

E4S main donors. 

The funds of the following donors represent more than $25,000 USD income per donor.

E4S is raising funds for the operational sustainability of the programs, as well as for the the payroll of the operative and administrative team. 

The required resources are grants to be used for the purchase of ludic materials and for program operative expenses, salaries, communication and stationery. We constantly need to cover these expenses, but as the global economy scenario is critical, we are prioritizing raising funds by the end of these year.  

The average monthly investment per beneficiary is $2 USD. To obtain the costs of each E4S intervention, a budget is made considering operational and fixed variables; the number of children and teachers benefited are the main indicators to define costs.  

Additionally, the operative costs have been reduced, making the implementation cost-effective. This has been possible by using an economy scale model; for example, to implement one of E4S’s programs in the United States for 500 children it is required 6.82 dollars per child as the monthly investment. By contrast, for a group of 100 children, it would cost 10.04 dollars per child per month.

E4S establishes partnerships with the aim of generating shared well-being that will directly impact in a social return on investment. According to Philanthropy, each dollar invested in E4S implies a social investment return of $2.20 USD over the course of a year, emphasizing the cost-benefit of the programs.

Based on our budget for 2020, the estimated expenses of E4S represent a 90% of the total income, operational costs being the concept in which it is invest the most. The items included are: salaries and staff fees, taxes, materials and communications. 

For the core costs of E4S, it is include office supplies and stationary. Finally the capital costs are computer and office equipment rental. Both of these expenses,  cover only 5% of the total budget.

E4S envisions a world where each people live to the best of their ability, recognizing their power to transform their reality and help others to thrive in a fast-changing world. 

Being part of The Elevate Prize community undoubtful will be an excellent opportunity for the E4S playful methodology to have an even bigger platform where we continue to contribute to the formation of better global citizens from childhood.

According to the barriers mentioned above, we visualize a partnership with The Elevate Prize in the following strategies:

1. Amplify the impact: We would love to explore diverse synergies to not only launch a digital materials in collaboration, but also to expand the impact of the existing ones with a global community. 

2. Mentorship and financial support during COVID-19 outbreak:  A consultancy will be helpful to analyze E4S strategic priorities to keep benefitting children and to define how to deal with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak. On a financial level, the funding opportunity will allow E4S to increase its liquidity contributing to the organization's financial stabilization during COVID's contingency.

3. External long-term evaluation: Connecting with the academia or external assessment institutions will strengthen the impact evaluation of each intervention of E4S, in a new normality.

For E4S it is essential to build a network of actors committed to sustainable development, as well as establishing partnerships with the academia, local business, multinationals, foundations, civil society organizations and governments.

E4S is committed to maintaining and generating relationships with the public sector such as institutions at the state and national levels, in order to address latency issues aligned to the public agenda. 

Recently, E4S is prioritizing to generate synergies with the academic sector to offer social service opportunities in the different areas of the organization, ranging from administrative to operational. Similarly, support from this sector would add to external evaluations of the organization's activities.

All partnerships E4S promotes, seek to create a shared value for the benefit of the local communities. A match is made with the values and mission of the organization, with those committed allies who are actively involved in the solution of societal challenges.