WhatsApp Messaging for Refugee Children in Lebanon 
📅 Sept 2020 – Ongoing
Key Sandbox Question: What is the role of WhatsApp messaging in providing effective education to refugee children during Covid-19?
| Subject: #literacy #numeracy | Age: #primary | Place: #Lebanon #refugee_camp |
| People: #refugee #teacher | Product: | Business Model: #donor #replication |
The Problem
Jusoor Syria’s refugee education programme has helped thousands of displaced Syrian children continue their education out of Syria. In response to COVID, Jusoor have shifted to combining Whatsapp with ‘take home’ learning packets to ensure out-of-school children in refugee camps can keep learning. However, the effectiveness of WhatsApp messaging as an edtech intervention is relatively unknown.
This Sandbox is helpling Jusoor – and the wider refugee education and edtech community – understand effective approaches to WhatsApp messaging.
Jusoor graduated from the UNHCR Humanitarian Education Accelerator.
What we’re doing
We are in the early stages of this Sandbox and identifying the areas that we want to explore together. These are likely to include:
- Understanding the barriers to engaging with the WhatsApp-assisted learning programme and testing the most effective interventions to increase parental support
- Exploring the best combinations of WhatsApp-assisted learning and physical materials to ensure learning outcomes for all children regardless of access to data and personal devices
- Exploring the most effective ways for teachers to be equipped to deliver remote learning to maximise impact on learning outcomes
Get involved
If you are interested in contributing or finding out more about this Sandbox, get in touch with alice@edtechhub.org
Evidence through implementation
You can read what we’re learning as we test, learn, and iterate during the Sandbox:
Sprint Review 1: Jusoor’s Whatsapp-assisted learning programme
- Some more things we learned during this sprint include the barriers to engagement in WhatsApp learning in refugee camps in Lebanon and essential criteria for Jusoor‘s WhatsApp assisted learning programme Azima.
Sandbox Partners
