RoboTech M&M

Due to the violence experienced in the 2000s in this region, we have been immersed in poverty. This brings with it problems such as drug addiction, prostitution and poor education. By the year 2021, there was a 6.3% increase in the number of pregnancies in girls aged 10-14. Not to mention that only 5% of high school graduates are able to access university. The children and young people in my community have no dreams, they know that once they finish high school they will have to start working in the fields in the case of the men, and the women, find a decent job or a man who at least won't beat them and put a roof over their heads. Unfortunately the public educational institutions in my municipality have not managed to make relevant changes in the more than 30 years they have been in operation. From a very young age, boys are taught that they must be strong to be able to lift heavy loads and work in the fields, and girls are taught that they must be well behaved and look for a good husband who will not beat them and at least give them a roof over their heads. It is common to find servile marriages, where women marry men who mistreat them because they have no education or skills to support themselves and their children.The reason for all in my community is the low quality of education.

My solution is to provide young people in my community with the tools they need to have a better future. We offer free programming and robotics classes to children and young people between the ages of 10 and 18. Programming requires knowledge in English, so we also teach this language. We not only want them to become programmers but also leaders who will create solutions in the future to help their community. We provide them with all the necessary skills so that once they finish high school they can get a job in the STEM field, which is increasingly in need of people. Together with English they create a strong CV that will enable them to get well paid jobs and improve not only their quality of life but also that of their families. 

RoboTech targets vulnerable and low-income young people between 10 and 18 years of age. They are young people living in the poorest neighbourhoods of the municipality or in rural areas. 65% of our current beneficiaries are girls, as they are the ones who experience the most social inequality and who, without any kind of education, will be forced to marry men who mistreat them. 

As a solution leader, I am a systems engineer and have the skills in Pyhton and C++ programming as well as programming knowledge. I have more than 5 years of experience in teaching STEM subjects and a C1 level in English certified by Cambridge University. My team has basic skills in these languages and a high level in English. They all have more than two years of teaching experience with children and young people. We are in constant preparation to offer our best version to the young people in our community who need it most. 

Right now we are only working in one place, however, we receive children and young people from different rural communities near Villanueva. We already have an operational model, but we believe it can be improved. 

We want to reach more young people, but we need more computers and robotics kits. Also, although we have run successful language education projects in different communities, we will want to prepare ourselves better before taking the next step. Because in these communities there are different challenges such as irregular electricity and bad roads. So we want to receive training from experts who can advise and guide us to reach more places in Colombia. 

We are innovative because we are empowering our students with up-to-date tools and skills that are much needed today. Unfortunately the public schools in my town seem to be 50 years frozen in time, no new skills are taught and students don't have many opportunities when they finish high school unless they go to university. Considering that only 5% of them can afford one and get a place, there is no bright future for most of them. We are the only place that has cared about them and their education, something that even the government has not done so far. Our students can get a well paid job with the skills they learn at RoboTech M&M and much higher chances of going to university. 

Young people with more advanced skills in programming and robotics could have access to high-paying jobs after high school. Also, their knowledge of English enables them to score higher on the national university entrance exam, so their chances of getting an undergratude are boosted. Therefore, high quality education ensures a better quality of life not only for them but also for future generations.

Our main goal is for 100% of our students to have access to higher education or, if not, to have access to well-paid jobs. So far, the only student who has finished high school has had amazing results in the national ICFES exam. This is graded with a maximum of 500 points, he scored 400 when the average in Colombia is 270 points. Not only that, but he is studying Systems Engineering at one of the best universities in Colombia, the National University of Colombia. We hope to replicate and surpass these results with our other students. 

For our programming classes we use laptops that have been donated to the foundation as well as arduino kits. In order to certify our knowledge we are making use of platforms such as Coursera and EdX where we conduct courses in programming as well as Internet of Things and programming. 

My team includes two other tutors. We also have partnerships with the EAN University and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Colombia, so there are 7 more volunteer tutors teaching programming and robotics virtually. 

The project started 3 years ago, when I realised the importance of digital skills in today's world, having already completed 2 years of my degree. So I first started teaching a few students. Today we are a bigger and stronger group. 

The main tutors of the project were students, who like me, found a better future in the M&M Foundation and decided to become tutors. Likewise, 6 of the tutors who teach online are mostly students from the capital who have grown up with more privileges and know first hand that education is very important for everyone. Also part of my team is a PhD in Systems Engineering who is totally dedicated to teaching. We are 6 women and 3 men. 

Our education is of such high quality that financially stable people pay us to educate their children. These people make up 20% of our students. With that money, we provide half or full scholarships to the remaining 80%, made up of vulnerable children from low-income backgrounds and Venezuelan migrant children. The latter, in addition to education, are also provided with food and lodging if necessary. In addition, we also obtain donations from national and international organisations.

Our main and most stable source of revenue is the students who pay for the services we offer. Every year we achieve more and better results and more and more families, even from other parts of the country, decide to pay us for their children's education. We have also received donations from organisations such as Lefil Consulting, with whom we work on different gender equality projects. We have also received donations of robotics kits from the AMA Foundation in Belgium. On the other hand, the partnerships we have with national and international universities allow us to offer high quality education without the need to invest much more than we currently do. These are: 

-Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia).
-EAN University (Colombia)
-Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
-OAS and Microsoft (We are a POETA centre)
-Thunderbird

We are constantly working on getting donations for the Foundation as well as increasing the number of paying students, so that we can benefit many more children who really need it.