Punto WIFI by Kaanbal

We are committed to solve the lack of access to quality educational contents that most indigenous rural communities experience. We do this by providing open educational contents in technology platforms that do not require Internet connectivity. Almost all inhabitants of indigenous communities have a smartphone with wi-fi capability, which is all they need to browse our platform. If this solution was scaled globally, many more underprivileged communities would have access to better quality educational contents which could help them improve their way of living.

According to ECLAC, only 66.7% of Latin Americans have access to the internet, but unfortunately for indigenous and rural communities, the percentage is drastically lower and even a significant number of communities lack access to basic services such as electricity & phone coverage. Our technology enables us to provide those communities with an extensive virtual library with diverse educational content for all ages and interests. Today, more than 20 communities and 10,000 people throughout Mexico are being directly benefited by having access to our platform “Punto WIFI” (WiFi Spot). We are continuously collaborating with local and worldwide organizations with the purpose of promoting new forms of education while promoting the preservation of culture and improving the quality of life in marginalized communities.

We work with “raspberry pi” microcomputers and use MicroSD memory cards to store the open educational content. The platform generates its own wi-fi signal to broadcast educational content. The users only require access to a smartphone with wi-fi capability in order to explore the platform. Most inhabitants of indigenous communities have such a device, so they already have what they need to access the educational content. After connecting to the wifi signal generated by our platform, they start browsing the educational content by accessing a local webpage contained in the MicroSD card. It is essentially a home web interface with links to different content modules, all served from within the device.

When our organization was founded, we started with the implementation of Punto WIFI platforms in indigenous communities located along the Riviera Maya that, sadly, suffer from a situation of extreme poverty, lack of access to education, and basic services such as electricity. Due to the success achieved with such communities, until today, we have tested our technology in more than 20 indigenous and marginalized communities throughout our country, México, benefiting more than 10,000 people, however, we are looking for opportunities to improve the scope of our project, taking it to a greater number of people in need, while promoting new forms of education, boosting their economy and also helping the preservation of their beautiful culture. 

At Kaanbal, we are strong believers that education is a crucial tool for helping poor and marginalized communities to reach an overall better quality of life. With Punto WIFI platforms, we are facilitating quality open educational content to the unconnected, helping people that lack access to education and connectivity, as is the case of many underdeveloped indigenous communities in Mexico and Latin America. We empower them by implementing educational platforms that allow them to easily access thousands of digital resources including Wikipedia, Khan Academy, video classes, health guides, apps to learn how to code, educational 360-degree videos, and much more.

We have already implemented Punto WIFI platforms in more than 20 communities through Mexico with very good results, impacting more than 10,000 people. The people have no problem understanding & using the platform, so we have proved we have a viable solution to a big problem, which is the lack of quality education in rural indigenous villages. We are currently coordinating an implementation in Papua New Guinea, which proves we are not only ready to scale but already doing it.

Our solution is innovative because it takes what already exists and gives it a new use case. Most people living in rural indigenous communities have low-cost smartphones, including their children who go to rural schools. In many communities there is no phone or internet coverage, so they have the device but they can’t access information with it. Our platform allows them to instantly connect to a wealth of open educational resources since they already have the technological interface. They don’t have to spend what little money they have in buying prepaid access to the Internet (when available). We are taking another route in bringing educational content to rural communities, as opposed to enabling Internet links, which is much more expensive and complicated.

It can be catalytic in the sense that if we enable enough communities with our platforms, we can bring them better educational content than the few they have access to, thus transforming the communities through education, allowing them to have access to better opportunities.

Our educational platforms are composed of open hardware, open software, and open educational resources. For the hardware, we use Raspberry Pi computers, which are small computers that allow us to bring open educational resources by storing them in a micro sd memory card. In the card lives the operating system, which is also open-source, and finally, we load the memory cards with a curated selection of open educational resources such as Wikipedia, Khan academy, books (PDFs), videos, etc.

The raspberry pi microcomputer generates its own wi-fi signal, thus allowing other devices to connect to it as if they were connecting to any other wi-fi router or hotspot. Once connected, a peer-to-peer network connection is established, and the user has signal coverage in a radius of approximately 30 to 40 meters. The user opens up a local website, pulling it directly from the microcomputer, and starts browsing the collection of open educational resources.

Raspberry Pi platforms are pretty well established now. Being very flexible they can be used for a lot of different DIY projects. There are several lists online of different projects you can build using them, such as https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en 

You can see a demo of our platform at the following links:

https://vimeo.com/561993050  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVTCoLtIKwQ&t=14s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WASE8dNRP9Y&t=3s

Our platform is completely safe to use. We guarantee that each platform contains only open educational resources, so there is no risk of users viewing any other type of content. With each platform, we include a user manual with detailed instructions on precautions and safety measures and we also have a live training session with the people of the community that will remain responsible for their operation.

Currently, over 20,000 people in more than 18 communities all over Mexico have access to our platform. By expanding to Papua New Guinea this year, we expect at least between 2,000 to 4,000 additional users. 

In five years, and continuing with our expansion and alliances, we expect to impact between 70,000 and 100,000 inhabitants of rural indigenous communities worldwide.

Our goals are to accelerate our growth and be able to reach thousands of rural indigenous communities not only in Mexico & Latin America but literally anywhere. As mentioned, we are working with sponsors in Papua New Guinea, Brazil, and Germany. We are also in close contact with other international NGOs such as the Internet Society (ISOC https://www.internetsociety.org/), IFA (https://www.ifa.de/) that serve both as sponsors by providing funding, but also as incubators & accelerators, by putting us in contact with other international players.

By continuing to look for sources of funding and sponsors, we want to keep implementing our platforms - also by providing remote assistance to other teams implementing the solution in their local communities. Our goal in Mexico & Latin America is to have a direct impact on over 1 million inhabitants of rural indigenous communities, by providing them free & easy access to our educational platform.

Our main metrics and KPIs have to do with how many rural communities have our platform, taking into consideration all of the inhabitants of each community. Since our platform is used not only by students but also by different members of the community. We keep track of the number of communities and the total amount of inhabitants impacted by our platforms.

Full time staff: 4

Part-time staff: 8

Our full-time staff is composed of Camilo Olea and Pedro Gonzalez, co-founders. Camilo is a Computer Systems Engineer and Pedro is a Mechatronics Engineer. They have both been involved in social projects since before this platform, and have been in contact with rural indigenous communities through other projects and initiatives. Other full-time staff are Liz Gonzalez, journalist, who has also worked with indigenous communities for social projects, and finally Alejandro Arjona, video & communications specialist. Alejandro has been involved with making and producing documentaries of rural communities since way before this project.

We all live close to the communities and visit them regularly. We help them not only with our project and platform but also through the promotion of the commercial products some of them make. We have established a close connection with them, and before any new implementation, we first visit the community and establish a bond with them, asking them what contents would they be interested in having at their disposal.

One of the full-time staff members, Liz Gonzalez, is a woman in charge of content development for our web and social networks. We regularly accept students from local colleges to do part-time social work with us, and we have had a variety of backgrounds, both male and female. Our organization is completely open and we make no judgments based on sex, race, or sexual preferences. Some of our part-time staff belongs also to the LGBT community.

We also establish working bonds with indigenous people from the communities; for example, teachers with whom we regularly stay in contact to follow up on the community and how is our platform being used. We work directly with many rural indigenous people, and we also have working relations with other social workers outside of Mexico.

We are definitely interested in grants that allow us to continue bringing our platform to more indigenous communities, but as the TPrize Challenge website says, we believe the mentorships & alliances we can establish with other international stakeholders are of much value to the project. We would love to exchange knowledge and experiences with other players in the education area worldwide.

By having more allies worldwide we can expand our impact and provide more rural indigenous communities with easy access to quality educational content that does not require internet or phone coverage.

At this point, our organization would like to receive help in financial, public relations, and distribution - since our business model is already defined. By having access to international stakeholders, we could expand our impact to other rural communities worldwide without the need to travel. We can hold remote training sessions via zoom, since our platform is “plug and play” and does not require any configuring at all. It’s very easy to set up and start using it.

We would also like help in making our organization more known worldwide, getting more national & international donors, and pitching to potential investors.

We would like to partner with any international organizations with the mission of bringing quality educational content to rural indigenous communities. Or also with the mission of reducing the digital gap. One organization that we would like to work with is “Pencils of promise” (https://pencilsofpromise.org/) since they already are building classrooms and supporting teachers in underprivileged rural communities.