Training Refugees in refugee camps coding techniques, blockchain and Plutus PBL

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Sofiane Ammar

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

sofiane@chamsngo.org

Additional applicants

bashar@chamsngo.org

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

11

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

CHAMS NGO (https://www.chamsngo.org) has a proven track record of bringing technical education and employment opportunities to refugee host zones. CHAMS operate with UNHCR partnership. CHAMS will use the Andamio platform by Gimbalabs as its core educational, certifying, and treasury management system.

We are excited by this collaboration with the Cardano developers community and with a project (Andamio) building on Cardano. Gimbalabs is the perfect team to support us with technical development as they have a strong track record in the ecosystem and their goals are aligned with ours. Gimbalabs will provide the Plutus PBL course, tech platform and connection to the ecosystem of Cardano, while Chams will provide the localisation and support on the ground.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Dev Ecosystem Collaboration

[METADATA] SDG rating

1, 4, 5, 8, 10

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We will engage 25 learners in coding, with an emphasis on blockchain and project-based expertise. Students will be Syrian refugees from Zaatari camp in Jordan. We propose to choose 50% Female and 50% Male as part of the cohort.

This proposal aims to fund the development and implementation of a Project-based learning (PBL) program to teach 25 students to code on the Cardano blockchain.

Providing an opportunity to access the digital market and gain financial autonomy will positively impact refugees, their families, and their communities. The impact would be for these refugees, their families and their communities, a bold opportunity to access the digital market and to gain financial autonomy.

Cardano seeks to make the world work better for all. This project is a unique opportunity to use Cardano with blockchain technology to provide life-changing opportunities to millions of refugees worldwide. This is a unique opportunity and a game changer for them and for a more inclusive word. It is also unique for Cardano and the crypto world today to train refugees in refugee camps.

The PBL course and mentorship support will be done in partnership with Gimbalabs and Andamio.

What is CHAMS?

Chams is an international NGO headquartered in France and specialized in computer technology training for Refugees and vulnerable populations.

Chams main purpose is to establish coding schools and employment connections throughout the world to help refugees in developing countries and local vulnerable communities gain the necessary coding skills to compete in the local and global digital job market. Our goal is to train 10,000 refugees to become talented coders by 2030.

Chams also aims to help refugees integrate with the local communities that host them, enabling them to contribute to the economic and social development of the countries in which they reside.

Chams has been operating in Mafraq near Zaatari camp and Amman (Jordan) since July 2019 and, after a 4000 applicants preselection, has successfully completed six cohorts of more than150 students. The desired outcome of the training program is to produce junior-level web developers (focusing on the frontend, backend, or both depending on ability and preference) and Junior Cloud practitioners (Amazon Web Service). All trainees were offered internship opportunities in different parts of the Kingdom. Some trainees are now employed (70% employment on the last 2 cohorts in 2022 and 2023). This project was a joint venture between Chams, Al Al-Bayt University, UNHCR Jordan, Royal JOHUD Foundation. 

We also signed an MOU in 2022 with NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council), to establish the same concept in Kenya Dadaab (the biggest refugee camp in the world). 

What is Andamio?

As a result of the work https://gimbalabs.com has done over the past years through the Plutus Project-Based Learning (PBL) program, Gimbalabs Playground, and Gimbalabs Live Coding, the Gimbalabs team created Andamio which provides an LMS platform for any organization to onboard and reward contributors. Contributors can earn skills that enable them to contribute to projects. 

 

The Andamio Platform:

Provides a Learning Management System (LMS) for onboarding new contributors to your project/organization and is built on Cardano with Plutus smart contracts and UI components for treasury management, skill accreditation, project contribution, and emergent reputation management.

You can find an introductory overview of the Andamio platform here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12VLfrZVaqLqzRCv_4ME78t4JERxeCLN8/view?usp=sharing

Plutus PBL course, developed on Andamio by Gimbalabs https://plutuspbl.io/

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Our proposal addresses the challenge by encouraging talented refugees to learn to develop on the Cardano blockchain. To deliver this training, we will use the Andamio platform. Andamio is a Learning management system (LMS) built on Cardano with skills and contribution tracking, treasury management, and smart contract capabilities. Using this platform, we will provide students with an on-chain record of skills acquired and contributions made as they progress through their training. This program is unique in the world and a model for humanitarian innovation. Its impact on the lives of refugees, their families, their communities, and local economies would position Cardano as a community that genuinely uses blockchain technology to promote prosperity and a fairer, more inclusive world for all.

We are a low volume and high touch solution for talented refugees. We believe talents are everywhere. 

Training them coding and blockchain advanced expertise could yield not only benefits for them, but also create a unique community in refugee camps that could make a difference and open bridges in the Cardano community.

The proposed program will be unique in the world and a humanitarian innovation that bet on promoting role models in refugee communities in camps.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

• Number of successful learners that will finish the plutus PBL training. 
• Number of internships and/or jobs with Cardano companies and ecosystem

 

We will survey learners to measure and gather feedback about the course and its benefits. We will also measure the localisation of the course and the mentorship needed to successfully become a Plutus developer. 

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

All project deliverables will be available to the community through the milestone reporting. We will also conduct a final report sharing the results of the project. CHAMS training program (Full stack dev training) and the Andamio platform will enable us to share statistics about the progress of the course.

We will also conduct after town hall sessions and Gimbalabs Playground sessions to share the experience and results. 

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We have more than five years of experience delivering training to refugees.

We are already working on similar programs for the last 5 years. We trained in Jordan, more than 150 refugees and underserved communities that are now employed. Below is the methodology we developed over the time to guarantee success of the program.

1. Chams teaching approach

Blended learning

Chams Coding School uses a combination of on-site learning with instructors, online resources (Codeacademy), a soft-skills program and English training. We curate resources and set up a learning pathway for the students to progress. 

Learning by Doing

Our training program uses agile methodology, and project deadlines delivery. The training provides very few theoretical courses, mainly workshops, dojos and teamwork. 

Image: Our 3rd refugees and youth vulnerable coding school cohort in Amman (Jordan)

Learn how to learn

Our trainer augments the usage of the platform by guiding the trainees in selecting proper topics to research, holding discussions on selected topics and exercises, sharing stories and anecdotes from their own experience, and by encouraging the trainees to collaborate on solving a selected set of problems.

1. Admission Process

To ensure the best possible outcome of the program, we have created a challenging and rigorous admission process to guarantee the selection of the best possible candidates. This process consists of 4 stages: preparation and self-learning, technical coding test, personal interview, and on-site coding challenge.

1.1 Preparation and self-learning

This stage starts right after filling out and submitting the application form. The candidate is sent an email with a list of topics to learn and a list of suggested learning resources in English and Arabic. The topics are part of the first competency area “Programming with Javascript”.

The purpose of this stage is to give the candidates a taste of what it will be like in the program and to give us the ability to assess their motivation and aptitude for autonomous self-learning, traits that will be extremely essential for their success in the program.

1.2 Technical coding test

In this stage, the candidates will have the chance to showcase what they learned in the previous stage by taking a coding test. This test will be in the form of 2-3 coding problems of varying difficulty that they will need to solve in a fixed amount of time (around 2 hours).

The purpose of this step is to ensure that all accepted candidates are roughly at the same level of programming knowledge on entering the program. It also decreases the probability of admitting under-motivated candidates into the program. Only candidates who pass the test will qualify to the next stage.

1.3 Personal interview

This is a non-technical interview. Its purpose is to get to know the candidate on a more personal level in order to assess their motivation and aptitude for active learning, and to get an idea about their plans and aspirations. Only people who pass the interview will qualify to the next stage.

In this step, and through our experience, refugee women face numerous challenges affecting their enrollment and attendance in educational programs. We will support them with an inclusive program aiming at mitigating the dropout rate. We will seek the involvement of family members, focusing on information and adhesion to the program, making sure the wider community understands the purpose, the approaches, but also the benefits of such a training course and its spillover effects on the self-reliance of the trainees’ families. To consolidate this aspect, the program will benefit from the long expertise of the UNHCR/Johud team in Jordan and NRC team in Kenya in supporting women in refugee camps.

1.4 On-site coding challenge

This is the final stage of the admission process and will last for 5 days. In this stage the candidates will be invited to an on-site coding challenge where they will be given a mini project to work on individually.

The project will build on the topics they have already learned during the first stage but will also require them to research and learn other topics to complete it. The lab will be open for them for around 8 hours every day during this stage.

The purpose of this stage is to see first-hand how those candidates work, solve problems, and interact. Candidates who complete this stage successfully will be admitted into the program.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

Our main goal is to implement a PBL program to teach 25 refugees to code on the Cardano blockchain and use the Andamio LMS to track and record skills acquired and student contributions as they progress through the program. The Andamio platform is a project of Gimbalabs (https://gimbalabs.com/), an organization with a successful track record of training and onboarding developers to build on the Cardano blockchain through their Plutus PBL (https://plutuspbl.io/).

This is the first pilote that we could scale in several refugee camps.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

2 months for building the team and the implementing partner at the refugee camp, 2 months for student’s preselection, 6 months for training and 1 month for evaluation.

Milestone 1: Team and refugee camp implementation partner (2 months) :

As we launch it at Zaatari camp (the biggest refugee camp in the Middel east) we already have contact with some potential partners: Blumont (https://blumont.org/), Libraries without borders (https://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/), Norwegian Refugee council (https://www.nrc.no/).

For each teaching program we need to select the right team of instructor and program manager, we have already worked with a number of local people who are qualified to provide training in the camp.

Milestone 2: Student pre-selection (2 months)

for more details refer to the process described at (What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?) section in the Admission process part

We expect to receive 400s of applications and will choose 25 at the end of the process.

Milestone 3: Training (6 months) for more details refer to the process described at deliverables sections.

Milestone 4: Job search (3 months - in parallel with the course)

• Part of the soft skills training, week 20-28
• Reach out the the companies working on Cardano to offer new developers 
• Have a list of potential revenue opportunities for trainees within the Cardano ecosystem (for example project catalyst proposer, reviewers)

Milestone 5: Evaluation (1 month)

• Project summary
• Trainee survey

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Please see a detailed Plutus PBL curriculum blended with CHAMS soft skills activities here Gimbalabs Plutus PBL curriculum

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Budget Summary

Milestone 1: Team and refugee camp implementation partner (2 months)

Deliverables

• Partnerships assessment report
• Partner agreement/contract
• Team selection and training plan
• Team and partner onboarding and orientation materials
• Team and partner assessment and feedback mechanism
• Local capacity development plan

Outputs

• Successful establishment of implementation team
• Partner selection
• Training resources

Cost (₳)

123,840

Milestone 2: Student pre-selection (2 months)

Deliverables

• Pre-selection process documentation
• Pre-selection criteria and guidelines
• Application review and shortlisting report
• Preparation and self-learning guides
• Technical coding test report
• Personal interview assessment report
• On-site coding challenge report
• Final list of selected students.

Outputs

• Process documentation
• Assessment reports

Cost (₳)

82,500

Milestone 3: Training (6 months) for more details refer to the process described at deliverables sections.

Deliverables

• Training curriculum
• Module materials
• On-chain student skill acquisition and contribution records
• Soft skills training materials

Outputs

• Successful delivery of 6-month Plutus PBL and soft-skills training program
• Comprehensive learning materials
• Soft skills development
• Student on-chain record of skills and contributions.

Cost (₳)

118050

Milestone 4: Job search (3 months - in parallel with the course)

Deliverables

• Company outreach report
• Job opportunities database
• On-chain record of student contributions
• Job application support materials
• Job placement success stories
• Job search progress report

Outputs

• Job opportunities
• Contribution record

Cost (₳)

46,440 

Milestone 5: Evaluation (1 month)

Deliverables

• Project summary report
• Trainee survey
• Evaluation report
• Lessons learned
• Program impact assessment

Outputs

• Trainee feedback
• Program evaluation reports
• Program impact assessment

Cost (₳)

15,535

Total delivery cost (₳)

386,365

Gimbalabs’ administrative costs

Project management

• 6 months
• 20 hours per month
• ₳ 300/hr 

Cost (₳)

36000

Plutus mentorship

• 6 months
• 40 hours per month
• ₳ 300/hr

Cost (₳)

72000

Total Gimbalabs administrative costs (₳)

108000

Total CHAMS and implementation partner items

Program management

• 11 months
• ₳ 386/hr

Cost (₳)

169885 ADA 

Total

664,250

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

A growing ecosystem needs great developers that are motivated, skilled and passionate about their work. Through our process we are able to scan 100s of applicants and select the ones that best fit to take the plutus PBL course. In collaboration with Gimbalabs who is well known in the Cardano ecosystem and their Plutus PBL course we will be able to onboard skilled developers to the ecosystem.

In addition, our partnership with UNHCR and other UN organizations will probably open new opportunities for collaboration with the Cardano ecosystem. 

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept