Paper Airplanes: Connect, Learn, Soar!

Paper Airplanes offers a solution for conflict-affected people, allowing them to integrate into new communities and giving them the tools they need to pursue higher education and employment. Our online, personalized language and skills training increases access to employment and educational opportunities, which in turn increases earning potential. By using video-conferencing technology to connect volunteer tutors and instructors with individuals affected by conflict, we have created a globally scalable model that can ensure that refugees and host communities have the skills to contribute to and benefit from economic prosperity. Our 5 programs: English, Turkish, Youth Exchange, Women in Tech, and Citizen Journalism, look to empower individuals affected by conflict so they can thrive educationally and professionally. By building the bridge between human potential and the growing world of virtual education and employment, we empower refugees with social inclusion and economic growth to reach their dreams.

Many refugees and other individuals affected by conflict face overwhelming obstacles to matriculation or employment, including a lack of credentials, required language, or technical skills. These same barriers hinder their ability to integrate into new communities and limit their opportunities for social inclusion or economic growth—both in terms of their own financial mobility as well as shared economic prosperity in their host country. Paper Airplanes focuses on filling this resource gap in an innovative and compelling way for some of the over 21 million people affected by conflict in MENA. Most of our students are Syrian, and we will expand our work into Gaza in September 2019. Language proficiency (such as English and Turkish) is a prerequisite for entrance to universities in many host countries as well as for many remote job opportunities. There are few free language courses available, and most remain inaccessible to those inside active conflict zones, in rural areas, or without transportation. Paper Airplanes helps students build competence in languages and professional skills to unlock employment and educational opportunities, thereby steering individuals in conflict-affected areas towards positive, life-building activities where educated young people become contributing members of the communities in which they live.

Individuals affected by conflict see their education plans disrupted and their professional ambitions upended. Students face difficulties in university matriculation and securing employment. By building competence in English as well as professional skills, we can unlock employment and educational opportunities for our students to help them pursue their goals and to secure employment. Further, PA’s students are ideally situated to participate in the digital economy. Because our online language and skills-based courses are virtual, our students become familiar with web-based tools and resources that enable them to engage with the broader world. Further, this empowers them to seek remote work with organizations such as Workaround that employ refugees and conflict-affected individuals who have English and tech skills. By empowering refugees and individuals affected by conflict, PA actively transforms economic precariousness into human potential. We constantly solicit our students’ feedback via surveys, focus groups, and by hiring students as staff to make sure that we understand their needs and can design our programs accordingly. They understand the barriers and challenges they face to integration and economic prosperity better than anyone, which is why we design and iterate our programs around their input.

We at Paper Airplanes run 5 programs: English, Turkish, Youth Exchange, Women in Tech, and Citizen Journalism. Our programs connect volunteer tutors and instructors with individuals affected by conflict so that they can receive personalized instruction via video conferencing. The Paper Airplanes approach takes advantage of access to freely available technologies like Skype, Google Drive, and Whatsapp. Our model is based on peer-to-peer learning, which not only encourages language comprehension and retention but also allows our students and tutors to forge relationships beyond the classroom. Paper Airplanes is based on cultivating relationships and building connections with communities around the world. We seek out tutors who are not only interested in the region but also have a strong commitment to global citizenship.  

PA students are recruited via partner organizations working on the ground in host countries and through social media. After a screening process, tutors and students go through a training program and are matched based on gender, age, academic interests, and language proficiency. In our language programs (English and Turkish), tutors and students meet for at least 1.5 hours each week and tutors are overseen by a tutor coordinator who helps them follow our detailed curricula. Our skills programs use a blended model of group class time (2-4 hours per week) followed by weekly individual mentoring sessions (1 hour per week) to assist with homework, editing, and additional questions. Each course has a curriculum crafted with the needs of online students in mind. Our courses run for 12-16 weeks. After students complete final projects or pass the final exams, they receive certificates of achievement. In our journalism course, this certificate is accredited by Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. Paper Airplanes also works with our partners to provide remote work opportunities for students in our English program and further coding courses for our Women in Technology students. 

Our Youth Exchange Program pairs conflict-affected youth aged 13-18 with high school students in the US. American high school students are trained to use the same curriculum as the English Program and are thus able to provide assistance in English language acquisition as well as participate in cultural exchange.

Several organizations provide conflict-affected individuals with educational and employment opportunities around the Middle East. However, these programs have barriers to entry, namely language proficiency or technical proficiency.  These language barriers create gaps between the students in need and the services offered. We are the bridge that allows students to pursue their education and employment goals and, critically, we do so at no cost to the student. Further highlighting the need for PA, may  language courses/other resources are inaccessible for many physical reasons such as distance, family limitations, danger, etc.

We have identified that there is a large global pool of volunteers interested in helping their conflict-affected peers, which is how we have been able to develop programs focused on live, one-on-one instruction. While students can improve their languages and skills using Massive Open Online Courses on edX and Coursera, the individualized support and instruction we provide allows students to focus on their goals. 

Ultimately, the largest obstacle to furthering educational and employment feasibility for conflict-affected people is their language and skills proficiencies. PA is filling this essential gap, and is doing so at no cost to our students. We harness technology, social media, and the power of volunteerism to create innovative and cost-effective solutions for educating youth and young adults affected by crisis. Our curriculum is informed by the cultural context of the region and is trauma sensitive to make sure that our students and tutors are best equipped to harness the tools of virtual learning and peer-to-peer connection.

By harnessing video conferencing technology and the benefits of peer-to-peer connections, Paper Airplanes provides our students with a bridge to educational and employment opportunities. Our model is based on the power of free, easy to use messaging and video conferencing platforms such as Skype, Google Hangouts, and Whatsapp. We have developed our own curriculum materials that are mobile friendly and accessible using free technologies, such as Google Drive. Further, our curriculum is trauma-informed and based on the cultural and political contexts of the regions in which we are working. Further, we invest in our tutors and instructors by equipping them to take advantage of technology in their teaching. We offer webinars and specific trainings in online teaching and language pedagogy, and our tutors use every channel available to them to connect with their students and add new dimensions to their lessons. Ultimately, by tailoring the materials we cover in our courses, we let the human connection shine through technological connection. In fact, our students and tutors often use the same conferencing platforms to chat and build friendships that they can draw upon to strengthen their education. Thus, we are building global connections through technology. 

To date, 170 students have found part-time remote employment through our partnerships. We have served over 1,500 students and have a student satisfaction rate of over 80% across all 5 programs. In 2018, student retention rates rose from 63% in 2017 to 85% in 2018. Nearly 40% of our students were women. This trend of increased student satisfaction, and direct access to university and employment opportunities is something we continue to work towards. Recently, Paper Airplanes launched a partnership initiative with Nexford University, an online, accredited university that secured 35 full scholarships for our students. It is opportunities like this that make PA unique in our work, because we not only provide free language and skills based learning, we also serve as a bridge between our graduates and other education and employment opportunities available to them. Our students also love the services we provide.  Some of the most striking examples of our impact include PA “was a game changer to my career!” and “I am so grateful for Paper Airplanes because they gave me a chance to contact a native English teacher and communicate with her for more than two years… I hope Paper Airplanes will be spread worldwide because it is the best programme I have ever participated in.” Our impact stems from our commitment to fostering individual connections and a sense of community. Our students learn, and so do our tutors. In a recent survey of tutors, 94.4% said they would recommend volunteering with Paper Airplanes.

To date, over 1500 students have registered with our programs. We average about 300 students per term, at a minimum, and will reach 500 per year by 2020. Our goal is to reach 2000 students per year by 2024. However, Paper Airplanes’ impact extends far beyond our student base. By helping society’s most vulnerable communities further their education and employment opportunities we are creating a sustainable system where our graduates can help support their families and communities, and further their economic prosperity as well as those of their broader societies. Further, by offering students access to English and Turkish classes (for Syrian refugees in Turkey) Paper Airplanes is a cultural bridge between the growing refugee population and the Turkish population, and enables further integration into the host culture and community. Our work impacts the lives of all of our participants, including our tutors. A recent survey conducted showed that 72.7% of tutors strongly agree or agree that they improved their tutoring and mentoring skills during their time with Paper Airplanes. Thus, the work we do as having a ripple effect: our staff sees tutors developing empathy and connection with individuals affected by conflict in the Middle East. Ultimately, PA is committed to fostering connection, education, and employment opportunities for our students.

We are actively looking to secure positions for our graduates with remote universities, online skills courses, and coding boot camps within the next year. We are also looking to expand our network of universities, schools of education, and student organizations who can provide us with more language tutors and expand our capacity to provide introductory classes for coding, journalism and other subjects. To date, we have secured 35 scholarships for our students to accredited online university programs.

By 2024, our target plan will be to have partnered with 10 major university as well as 10-major volunteer-based groups in order to increase the number of students we can serve and the number of tutors we are able to engage in our work. While our focus is on individual students, we know that our impact is transformational because when people can pursue higher education and become employed, their whole family benefits. And not only are we creating positive impact for students and their families, but our tutors and volunteers also gain valuable mentoring and tutoring skills that they bring into their own communities. 

PA is largely volunteer-based. Of our 41 employees, 5 are paid and we only have 1 full-time staff member. This means we work overwhelmingly on unpaid, volunteer power. That said, we have been able to circumvent this challenge through offering internships and by creating a thriving and successful sense of community and shared purpose. Moving forward, however, we need to be able to secure funding to limit staff turnover and to continue to expand—a goal we hope to achieve with the support of MIT Solve.

Another challenge PA faces is the issue of inconsistent student internet connectivity. However, we are working to overcome this challenge as well. In the tutor and student training, we provide guidance on how to participate in lessons/meetings when connectivity is an issue— such as screen sharing any files that are too large for the student to load, and the student taking pictures of handwritten exercises if they are unable to work on a shared document. This fall, we are expanding into Gaza, which has expansive wireless and ethernet connectivity, and our growing partnerships with on the ground nonprofits will be key steps in overcoming this challenge. 

Lastly, Western attention has shifted away from the international refugee crisis, which has led to a decrease in interest amongst potential volunteers. We hope that the support of MIT Solve will increase our profile and aid in volunteer recruitment in the US and internationally.

We are looking to overcome our financial barriers by expanding our funding base and redesigning our fundraising initiatives to include fundraising dinners and community events, expanding our program design to include student sponsorships, and by building out our organizational partnerships. We will be changing the number and length of fundraisers we host each year from 2-3 small fundraisers to 1 large, annual fundraiser targeted around the holiday season to create a more sustained and lasting momentum in our fundraising efforts. Additionally, in order to address students’ connectivity, we will improve our partnerships with organizations who have access to internet centers open to our students, so that we can successfully expand our work to include students in Gaza and the West Bank. Additionally, we are launching a ‘sponsorship program’ where some of our students will be partnered with a sponsor (to their coursework) here in the West. This will enable us to collect revenues while providing sponsors with a meaningful volunteer opportunity as well as offering our students another avenue for English language practice. Further, in order to improve our volunteer outreach, we will deepen our institutional ties—such as with universities—to ensure that all individuals who would be interested in our work know about us. Currently, we are in discussions with both traditional and online universities about securing a broader volunteer base. Lastly, we are developing  programming and outreach initiatives with corporate volunteers and CSR programs both in Silicon Valley and beyond. 

Paper Airplanes is an independent 501(c)(3).

Paper Airplanes has 1 full time and 1 part-time employee, as well as 3 individuals working in stipended positions and an unpaid team of 37 staff members. In total, we have a team that is mostly composed of volunteers who are highly driven and committed to the work of the organization. All of our tutors, across all of our programs, are volunteers and are not compensated. This is how we are able to keep our overhead and programmatic costs low.

Paper Airplanes was established in 2014 after our founder visited Reyhanli, Turkey, and met several young college-aged Syrian students working to complete their university degrees. To help them achieve their goals, she established an online language tutoring program. This small, grassroots group grew organically into Paper Airplanes. And the grassroots, needs-based mission of the organization continues to  lead our work . Our founder now serves on PA’s board and works closely with our new Executive Director, Mukaram Hhana. Mukaram has an extensive background in both nonprofit work and in Middle Eastern studies. Having worked for Amnesty International and Student World Assembly, Mukaram taught English to refugees in Lebanon for a year before completing her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. She spent the next two years teaching and writing as the McPherson Eveillard Fellow in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Smith College. Mukaram works closely with PA’s Managing Director Gabby Wimer, who has been with the organization for three years and has previously worked as a tutor, tutor coordinator, and English program manager. Gabby brings a wealth of experience from having established her own non-profit program in Guatemala that continues to operate. Our program managers and other staff have backgrounds in curriculum design, youth-led work, trauma-informed language education, intercultural communication, and program management, and their expertise ensures our programs run efficiently and are meeting the needs of both students and tutors.

Paper Airplanes believes that our work is always stronger, together. We have partnerships with MIT ReACT and Nexford University to provide our students with access to higher education, Workaround to provide our students with remote work opportunities and Talent Beyond Boundaries, Jusoor, and Syrian Youth Empowerment to recruit students for our programs. We are also in the process of finalizing partnerships with several other organizations working on the ground in the Middle East with refugees and host communities who are searching for language and technical skills education opportunities for the youth and adults they engage. 

Paper Airplanes is a non-profit that engages individuals who are looking  to give back to their conflict-affected peers in the Middle East and provide them with free language and skills training. We offer English to youth and adults, Turkish courses, and have piloted programs in Women in Tech and Citizen Journalism. Using networks of university interest clubs, English teaching master’s programs, and retired English teachers, Paper Airplanes has been able to reach hundreds of volunteers across the globe and provide fulfilling volunteer opportunities. In total, these volunteers’ time is estimated at $400,000 on the private market. As a team, we are committed to providing a valuable learning experience for tutors and students and empowering students with the language and skills-based learning they need to pursue their education and employment objectives. We offer 5 programs: English, Turkish, Youth Exchange, Women in Tech, and Citizen Journalism, that are free of charge to our students. We do this by recruiting volunteer tutors and matching pairs for a 12-16 week semester of peer-to-peer learning using the trauma-informed curricula we have developed.

As a non-profit, Paper Airplanes relies predominantly on grants, individual donations, and paid relationships with partners for its revenue streams. However, beginning in 2019, Paper Airplanes will be launching an effort to target large corporations, and their CSR initiatives,  to provide meaningful volunteer experiences for their employees. For a small fee, Paper Airplanes will provide all necessary infrastructure, training, and support services to provide mentorship and tutoring opportunities for employees.

Increasing our budget to $400,000 by implementing a sponsorship program, scaling our individual donor outreach, and cultivating relationships with institutional donors and philanthropic organizations as well as CSR initiatives will allow us to hire the full-time programming staff, public relations managers and media campaign managers necessary to ensure the sustainability and expansion of PA services. Moreover, growing our annual budget to this goal, through a mixture of individualized student sponsorships, donorship, and grants that can directly support our programing will allow us to create a hybridized model where we can sustain our growth as an organization while continuing to prioritize the needs of  our students. Further, we have recently begun exploring adding to our revenue streams by implementing a sponsorship model where our students will be matched with a tutor and a ‘sponsor’ who can sponsor their semester's course by paying Paper Airplanes to cover their student’s participation. The sponsor would also have the opportunity to connect directly with their student every month. This would provide our students with an additional conversation partner with whom to practice English, while allowing us to cover our overhead costs. We established this model from feedback from our students.

MIT Solve is an ideal fit for Paper Airplanes in several ways. First, being a Solver will allow us to make key connections to increase our funding as well as to partner with education and employment organizations who can support our students and allow us to recruit volunteers. Additionally, Solve would be critical to us in its capacity to provide guidance on strategic growth as an organization, which includes the expansion of our volunteer tutor, student, and partner bases. Further, MIT Solve’s focus on social inclusion, prosperity, and inclusive economic growth" perfectly aligns with our mission, our organisational ethos, and the work that we do on a day-to-day basis. he networking opportunities as well as mentorship and guidance afforded to Solvers would be a great asset to Paper Airplanes as we grow over the next 5 years.

In our efforts to grow, Paper Airplanes has 3 key strategic partnership areas we are looking to expand. First, we intend to build upon our corporate and foundation support to ensure sustainable funding for our work. Second, we want to partner with online universities to provide higher education opportunities to our students, as well as remote employers to secure employment opportunities for our students. Lastly, we want to partner with volunteer programs from universities and other institutions to ensure that we have enough tutors and mentors to support the growth of our work. Future organizations we look to partner with include: Jesuit Worldwide Learning, German Jordanian University, "DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service." HOPES Madad, Education for Humanity at ASU, World Bank Scholarships, and Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER.) This is just one of the many ways we are looking to expand our services to our students and graduates.

If selected for the GM Prize, Paper Airplanes would allocate the prize monies for our Women in Tech program. We would use these funds to hire a program manager, expand our curriculum to involve more women in the region and empower them to secure the skills they need to find remote employment, as well as develop and expand our partnerships and to secure paid internships for our program graduates. The work that we do in our Women in Tech program is critical:by empowering women in the Middle East to begin to envision a career for themselves in the tech industry, we are already breaking cultural and social barriers. Further, our Women in Tech program allows us to prepare our students for the more vigorous and competitive entry work into a coding bootcamp and other intensive tech-based programs. Similar to our language programs, our Women in Tech program offers a critical lifeline to conflict-affected women who are seeking to support themselves and their families while equipping them with the skills to pursue a career in technology.

If selected for the Innovation for Women Prize, we will use the funding to grow three of our programs. First, we will expand our Women in Tech program into one that empowers women in the MENA region to find remote employment. We would hire a full-time program manager, expand the curriculum to involve more women regionally, and create more partnerships to enable us to secure paid internships for our graduates. Further, we would use this prize for our English program, which is comprised of 40% women, and for our Youth Exchange program which is already working with an all-girls’ school in Afghanistan and is looking to expand the number of adolescent women it works with to improve their English. OurWomen in Tech program empowers women in the Middle East to realize their full potential and pursue a career in the tech industry, and bolstering the program with more employment resources will help our students take full advantage of the skills they learn. Remote employment—and tech specifically—is the perfect path for many women who would otherwise be prevented from working due to transportation difficulties, family responsibilities, and other restrictions. Increasing female involvement in our programs enables more women to engage actively with their futures, reinforce their self-reliance, and contribute to the mutual economic prosperity of their host communities.

Paper Airplanes looks to be the bridge between the talent of refugees and the education and employment opportunities available. We would use this program to expand our Turkish language program and to launch a French language program which would allow refugees to better integrate into their host communities. Lack of proficiency in a host-country language is a significant  barrier to refugees becoming included in their host communities. By equipping refugees with Turkish and French language skills, we will be able to advance the economic, financial, and political inclusion of refugees in their host communities and reinforce the refugees communities with the self reliance and education they need to support peaceful integration and inclusion within their host communities while they figure out the next steps in their lives. We would also allocate a portion of the funding to support and expand the work of our English program which is a key skill for refugees in order to promote self-reliance so that they can access higher education and employment opportunities. 

Paper Airplanes is boldly sparking change through our programs. Because of the individualized, peer-to-peer instruction that we offer, we are building sociocultural as well as professional connections for our students in the Middle East. Ultimately giving an individualized face to the “international refugee crisis” is the most innovative and disruptive work any organization can do. Further, our efforts at building out a pipeline that links language training with skills-based learning allows us to lay the foundation for our students to be able to continue their work either in the journalistic or technological fields. We are using the technological revolution that has created tech hubs in developing countries to enable refugees to rebuild their lives. Given the growing demand for coding professionals and the technological revolution that has created tech hubs in developing countries, Paper Airplanes seeks to empower refugees and other individuals displaced by conflict across the Middle East with the tech-based skills they need to thrive in the growing digital workplace. We aim to do so by familiarizing our students with the basics of global technology in our language program, and by delving further into this in our coding program. Our programs are accessible to many types of learners who would otherwise be unable to access education and employment opportunities, and we enable them with the holistic skills they need to thrive in their communities.