KISTH STEAM Schools

Indigenous people have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Ecuadorian Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), 84% of households in rural areas do not have an internet connection. 19% of Ecuadoreans who live in rural areas are digital illiterates. 

The pandemic has revealed this crude reality that affects most indigenous people in Ecuador, primarily children. This connectivity issue is causing a massive (3 to 1) digital breach and differences between rural and urban populations. 

In addition, the indigenous in Ecuador have had access to education for no more than 75 years. That is reflected in the number of undergraduate and postgraduate graduates, the number of graduates in international universities being minimal.

Our solution is to offer free connectivity to the most remote communities in Ecuador. Moreover, We complement the educational part by encouraging children and young with teaching courses in STEAM.

We work with indigenous children and youth from rural communities with primary and secondary education.

Kichwa Institute of Science, Technology and Humanities is the biggest network of indigenous professionals in Ecuador. We have professionals trained in multiple areas of STEAM to teach dictatorial courses to promote STEAM careers.

We applied to Solve because it is an excellent opportunity to grow and network within social enterprises. By participating in Solve, we seek an opportunity to seek financing to expand our solution in more rural communities in Ecuador.

We also seek support to be able to have materials translated into multiple native languages of our beneficiary population. Finally, technological assistance will be vital in connecting communities without connectivity or electricity and learning the benefits of digital technologies.

We innovate by offering connectivity to the most remote communities in the country and promoting STEAM areas with creative courses for indigenous children and youth.

The next year we will visit at least ten communities without connectivity and in five years we will be operating around Latin America countries.

We are measuring by how the people perform in his classes and the number of people who accede to university education.

Theory of Change elucidates the change process by identifying causal links in an initiative's short-, intermediate-, and long-term results.

Internet is the core technology to connect instructors from around the world to teach STEAM courses to the children.

The KISTH Foundation's mission is to seek solutions to the different problems existing within and outside rural communities, with the main focus on the inclusion of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, as their knowledge based on nature has allowed Ecuador to be one of the richest countries in the world in flora and fauna. Thus, 90% of KISTH's members are indigenous, who work day after day for a more sustainable Ecuador through the empowerment of indigenous peoples and the visibility of indigenous women. 

We offer training courses for rural communities through partnerships that finance these opportunities. Likewise, when indigenous inhabitants have access to connectivity, they have to pay a fee that is equivalent to 5% of what it usually costs to contract the wifi service for any home. Thus, our proposal is sustainable. 

For the execution of our proposed solution, which is currently in the prototyping phase, we have accessed the collection of donations, while for this service to be sustainable in rural communities, we have implemented a minimum fee for access to connectivity services, so that the service can be used for more than a year and the indigenous inhabitants can access a lot of information for only 5% of what it costs to hire wifi service in their communities.