Thaki

Project: Digital Literacy Rights
Country: Lebanon
Partner: Thaki

Lebanon is suffering from an extreme economic calamity and is plagued by one of its worst unemployment crises in history. It currently hosts the highest rate of refugees per capita in the world with 1.5 million Syrian refugees and over 200,000 Palestinian refugees. 76% of Syrian refugees and approximately 50% of Lebanese in Lebanon are living below the poverty line – and these figures are prior to COVID-19 and the Beirut blast of August 4, 2020. The education of these children is particularly concerning, with many children missing out on their schooling. Children who are out of school take to the streets, work at too young on age, become child brides or fall prey to extremist groups and other dangerous fates. A particularly concerning threat is the enrollment rates in a secondary school which are drastically declining.

Thaki’s model creates socially responsible public-private partnerships that work towards addressing the educational crisis in the region. Thaki engages the private sector through donations of gently used e-devices, allowing the private sector to take an active role in addressing one of the region’s most pressing issues and equipping teachers and children with future-focused skills needed for employability. Thaki also provides a green solution to e-waste. To date, and in partnership with recipient education centers, Thaki has reached an estimated 9,000 children throughout Lebanon.

Project Description

Thaki bridges the digital divide by providing user-friendly content that can be 100% accessed offline, addressing internet connectivity constraints, and ensuring that students have access to education. Thaki’s tools include a Digital Toolkit of training materials and resources in the form of mini-courses, videos, lesson plans, and teaching tips and tricks to guide target populations with ICT skills and pedagogy, utilizing the rich array of educational content available on Thaki laptops, while imparting these skills onto their students. Thaki also provides additional online learning tools for teachers.

 This project aims to provide 2,400 children and their teachers with access to e-learning and digital literacy tools.