Group Care for Child Health
from the Early Childhood Challenge
What do they do?
Possible Health provides high-quality, low-cost healthcare to the poor. They have created integrated hub-and-spoke model of hospitals, clinics and community health workers, built within the government’s existing infrastructure. They’ve recently served their 300,000th patient!
What are they doing with Amplify?
Working closely with the local community, Possible’s observations led them to believe that mothers would be more likely to access service and take advice that was delivered as part of our group. They proposed this early-stage idea for group pediatric care to Amplify’s Early Childhood Education Challenge.
Possible won $100,000 in grant support as well as an eight week design project. Three IDEO.org designers traveled to Nepal and worked closely with Possible staff to build prototypes of the following things:
- A format for group sessions that mothers find engaging
- A system that encourages mothers to continue attending group sessions, and
- A way to help mothers track development milestones.
Together, they designed a series of tools, including learning games, a child-health record and trading cards for children. Possible is now piloting these tools, using feedback from the community to improve them and test new ideas. Amplify designers continue to be involved, to help the team when they hit roadblocks and lend light design support. The Possible team has secured an agreement with the government to scale the group model if it proves effective – an opportunity for lasting results!
...[IDEO.org comes] with a design approach that is so unique to nonprofits it might possibly seem absurd in the beginning—but so interesting it becomes an eye-opening and beneficial experience immediately.
- POSSIBLE HEALTH
A Bridge to Formal Schooling
from the Refugee Education Challenge
What do they do?
Yarid is a refugee founded and led community organization, focused on programs that provide informal language instruction, internet access and vocational training to refugees. They have helped hundreds of Congolese, Burundian, Rwandan, Ethiopian and Kenyan refugees learn English and start new lives in Uganda.
What are they doing with Amplify?
For refugee children, the transition to new school systems can be difficult because of language, family resources and different academic curricula. As part of the Refugee Education Challenge, Yarid proposed creating a bridging program that would provide school-age children with the support they need to begin – and then stay enrolled – in school. They plan to do this through assessments, mentoring and academic support for students, savings schemes for parents and sensitization training for teachers.
Yarid received an Amplify grant of $80,000. After three months of prototyping following the human centered design bootcamp all winners attend, Yarid determined that hosting a bridging course in local schools was the most promising delivery option.
The team is now in the process of testing three different approaches to an in-school bridging program, with a view to building out the most promising structures. These approaches include:
- Developing a class-based support program that pairs Ugandan teachers with teachers from the refugee community
- Connecting teachers to better tools to teach language
- Creating a mentorship program that gives children access to experiential learning opportunities outside of school
Yarid has recently been awarded the Ockenden International International Prize for Excellence and as part of this, will receive $100,000, to continue to develop other elements of their programming.
We Love Reading
from the Refugee Education Challenge
What do they do?
In recognition of the fundamental importance of reading in early childhood development, Taghyeer aims to establish a library in every community in the Arab world. It’s doing this by creating resources, developing the capacity of storytellers and organizing storytellers into a sustainable network.
What are they doing with Amplify?
After successful initiatives in Amman, Jordan, Taghyeer witnessed a growing need for educational services targeted at the Syrian refugee community. They submitted their idea to expand their reading circles into the Zaatari Refugee Camp as part of the Refugee Education Challenge.
Taghyeer received $190,000 in funding as well as well as a 12 week design project with IDEO.org designers. Together, they asked themselves the question: how might we create a scalable system that empowers We Love Reading volunteers with the training, resources and support they need to inspire a love of reading in children?
Working with the Amplify team, they uncovered a key insight – that in order to scale this program in a way that addresses the existing need, they needed more than a program – they needed to create a movement. Together, they co-designed a suite of tools, including workbooks, tracking tools, reading materials and instruction guides that will be tested in Zaatari and beyond.
Because early goal is to expand this program to Arabic-speaking, camp-based refugees in Zaatari and beyond, Taghyeer is working to develop partnerships that will increase their ability to expand the program in a way that doesn’t sacrifice quality, experience or results. To start, they are focusing on the heart of their program, their reading circle volunteers, who they call librarians. They are now in the process of prototyping different ways to:
- Spread the word about the program
- Train volunteers
- Keep volunteers feeling supported and motivated
They are also working on building partnerships with organizations who could help them scale successful initiatives.
"More than all the grants and awards we've received, working with IDEO.org is the best resource that has come to We Love Reading."
