Maharat ICT Academy, Eastern GhoutaA Past Project of Roia

Oct 2016 - Feb 2018

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The overall logic of the intervention was to enhance the sustainable livelihoods of youth by training them in advanced ICT skills and connecting them to income-generating opportunities available locally in their communities and internationally through online freelancing. Where Phase I focused exclusively on training beneficiaries in vocational ICT skills, Phase II focused on activities that translate those skills into tangible livelihood opportunities.

Project Overview

Sector: Livelihood

Beneficiaries:

35 completed phase I, 29 completed phase II

Eastern Ghouta, Syria

October 2016 - February 2018Phase I: October 2016 - May 2017Phase II August 2017 - February 2018

Program Components at a Glance

Component 1: Improved access to vocational training and workspaces

to pursue work online

Outc

omes

Com

ments

• The Centre was temporary closed due to armed group fighting in April 2017 and damaged on 2 separate occasions in November 2017. The result was the consistent suspension of activities, resulting in a dulled impact and delays towards achieving project milestones and objectives.

• 72% class participation • 94% of males, 54% of females completed paid

tasks • 36 solar panels fully installed, covering all the

centre’s energy supplies • Google and LMS accounts and Bee NET

internet packages provided for each student

• Opening of safe ICT academy with incubator• Providing an alternative to joining armed

groups for men• Securing greater equality and wellbeing for

women through ICT

Component 2: Improved IT programming and English language.

Component 3: Improved entrepreneurship skills and idea

incubation

Obje

ctive

• Deliver a vocational training package for male and female youth

• Ensure gender quality between beneficiaries• Train 40 students in IT programming and basic

English

• 20 males and 17 female trained• Total of 40 classes over the implementation

period• 40% of the students rated the training as

excellent, 54% as very good

• Military escalation in Ghouta had negative effects on student attendance, moral and motivation. In order to increase the moral of students we held two successful ‘Inspiring people’ events showing success stories from Syrian youth in the IT field.

• English speaking staff volunteered to provide conversational English classes via Skype.

• Train students in ideation and entrepreneurship

• Develop the independent competencies of the beneficiaries, encouraging them to start own initiatives

• Build and deliver an operational crowdfunding platform (Skills Under Siege)

• 15 males and 7 females were tasked to design websites of local CSOs and NGOs.

• Total of 4 “Jumpstart” workshops held• 7 projects (15 beneficiaries) received green

light for a total budget of USD 21,950• 4 paid work opportunities secured for

beneficiaries

• February 2018: large-scale military campaign to capture Eastern Ghouta. Restricted mobility of residents, including beneficiaries and project staff.

• By March 11: region was divided into three separate areas, cutting off the location where the equipment was stored from homes of beneficiaries .

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The Concept

An ICT Academy providingCoding Classes | Language Classes | Co-working and Lab

The ICT freelance market is full of opportunities and a growing field. Coding academies in Iraq, Jordan, Greece and France have shown: training members of refugee and host communities to offer their skills on international freelance markets provides scalable livelihood opportunities. Whereas the number of direct beneficiaries for such programs is small, the wider community around participants of coding programs benefit vastly. Data made available from online freelancing platforms and independent market analysis reveal that, for ICT freelancing, there is a significant unfulfilled demand. Skills such as programming, so�ware development and web design are highly competitive and for those who possess them, contracts for both one off tasks and contracts

leading to iterated employment opportunities are plentiful. Although learning-curves for coding languages are initially steep, the ICT sector is driven by an English-speaking community and demand. Evidence from Germany shows, that employers in the tech sector are far less interested in diplomas but rather skills. These skills, together with a Microso� certification, English language classes and a place to test and experiment with computers are provided by Roia's ICT acadamies. Graduates of ICT Academies are able to earn a living for themselves and their network - and equipped with solid transferable skills, useful even if students decide to leave their community or country. This was the case for most students in Eastern Ghouta, once the regime took the area in February 2018.

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Vocational Training

Empowering Students with front- and backend Development

As with the English training, the beneficiaries were separated into 2 groups by gender. Violence in the area interrupted classes frequently. Only 31 classes could be conducted instead of the planned 40. The training started in August and finished in September 2017.

ability of the USD 25 monthly allowance to cover the opportunity cost of attending classes was diminishing. Men suffer disproportionally from this decrease in purchasing power as they have a greater cultural expectation to "go out and work" to meet the immediate needs of their household. All beneficiaries, both male and female, passed the post intervention test and demonstrated significant improvement from the pre-test.

Training modules covered the following topics:

• HTML (40 hours)• CSS with Bootstrap (40 hours)• JavaScript with jQuery (40 hours)• PHP with Laravel (80 hours)• MySQL (40 hours)• Learning CMS (Wordpress) through a

mini-project (80 hours)

The scores for JavaScript are particularly low since the subject was being taught at a time of high violence and insecurity in Eastern Ghouta. Many students, especially female students, have been unable to complete any JavaScript assignments, thus, the scores are exceptionally depressed even with an adjusted calculation. Female attendance was far higher than male attendance. From August to September 2017 the siege situation had not yet deteriorated to the extent it had in January 2018. Nonetheless, inflation of goods and decreasing purchasing power was already starting to be felt and the

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English Training

Getting Students Ready for Global Work Opportunities

29 student completed the English training, chiefly due to a delay in the release of funds, causing a 4-months time gap between two phases of the project. This unexpected time gap resulted in difficulties securing the return of beneficiaries from Phase I, hence the drop of several students from the outset of Phase II. Further, beneficiaries were discouraged to attend due to persistent security concerns. Inflation and reduced purchasing power as a result of the tightening siege increased the opportunity cost of attending the project well beyond the USD 25 offered monthly to each beneficiary – i.e. the immediate need for increasingly costly basic goods forced beneficiaries to prioritize work over the courses whenever they could find it. Only having limited resources to conduct one level of English class per gender group, despite their being a fairly large range of base proficiency among the students, also demotivated beneficiaries.

Overall, students remained largely satisfied with the English classes, as the chart on the le� indicates. Evidently, as 7% increase of students' English level is far from satisfactory. Bearing the seucrity situation in Eastern Ghouta in mind, the result is understandable though.

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Entrepreneurship and Jumpstart Training

Although some training modules in this section may seem basic, their need has been carefully assessed before the project. For instance, the culture of freelancing is far from known in Syria. It is for this reason that a significant amount of time has been spent on these skills. Further, empirical evidence shows that the freelancing market is a highly competitive environment. Placing individuals from areas of conflict without proper mental preparation on such platforms seems to contradict the do-no-harm principle. That is why, we designed this section carefully to enable beneficiaries while minimizing risk.

The workshops covered the following topics:

Personal Life Skills (2 days)• balancing stress• personal SWOT analysis• MBTI personality test• setting personal goals

Job Search Skills (2 days)• resume writing• Iiterviewing techinques• manage expectations

Freelancing Skills (2 days)• define own portfolio• networking• pricing techniques

Startup Workshop (5 days)• assessing innovation opportunities• prototyping• market segmentation and user needs• marketing• feasibility studies

One workshop session about communication so� skills could not be completed due to the regime offensive in February 2018. In addition, Roia managed to recruit two volunteers of Syrian origin who work for two large western companies in Europe and North America. Under the title Inspiring People Events, Roia organised two video conferences with these two Syrians, answering students' questions and giving guidance on career development.

The group of female students at the inspiring people event, chatting with Mithal Dabash who is of Syrian origin and works

for Microsoft.

What has been Lost -

Regime Offensive

2018The entire training program was intended to culminate in self-started initiatives. Students had submitted their impactful ideas that could make a difference in their communities in Eastern Ghouta. Roia evaluated and polished these proposals and procured the requested items. Then a full-blown regime offensive hampered the delivery and continuation of these ideas. Even though none of them has been realized, these ideas stand here to demonstrate the potential of Maharat's students - and the immense loss. Since the offensive we have managed to locate and follow up with 15 out of 35 students. One of them is trainer in our current ICT academy in Atarib, Aleppo province.

Web LandWebland is a two-person so�ware startup in Eastern Ghouta, providing website design services for organizations and companies in- and outside the besieged area. Webland charges competitive prices according to the international market. The startup's services also include IT support services for organizations and institutions in Eastern Ghouta who lack technical expertise. Delivered funding: 2,950$

CompassCompass is a web portal platform for all medical centers in Eastern Ghouta, with the goal of improving the health sector in the besieged area. Through this web portal, medical centers in Eastern Ghouta will have their own websites showing their services and impact numbers, thereby enhancing transparency of their work to beneficiaries and donors. Furthermore, the portal will provide services to residents of Eastern Ghouta, such as booking an appointment or checking the availability of needed medicine throughout all centres. The people in Eastern Ghouta can access these services through a simple mobile app that facilitates the access to the services.Delivered funding: 3,300$

HakineHakine will provide relieable, decentralized communication services connecting people in Eastern Ghouta with each other without internet connection. Hakine manages to build a messenger app that will be installed in local servers in Eastern Ghouta, which can then be accessible through a local network by using a mobile app. Residents of Eastern Ghouta can then communicate securely, independent of internet provision.Delivered funding: 4,000$

Keep Me Young"Keep Me Young" is a Arabic-language platform that provides help to users in how to build a personal plan, self- and time-management, reaching personal goals. The "Keep Me Young" platform will be available as mobile app in Arabic. It will focus on a simple design and user experience to be as accessible as possible to get people engaged with the app.Delivered funding: 3,300$

Ghouta Market"Gouta Market" is a website allowing people to buy and sell secondhand goods, and to provide an online advertising space for businesses, markteting their products. Gouta Market will be available first as a web application, and in a next stage as a mobile app. It will be partnered with a local magazine, and social media pages. It is also planned to expand the platform to include other areas in Syria.Delivered funding: 2,950$

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I learned the foundations of IT at Maharat and especially enjoyed the hands-on approach. I haven’t found this anywhere else. The learning-by-doing approach of the project was very useful also in finding a job

Mohmmed, living in Turkey now, working for a company on .NET projects

Voices of Former Students

The best thing about Maharat was the idea generation aspect and the chance given to fund these ideas. It’s a pity that this phase of the programme remained uncompleted.

Ra'ed, living in Turkey now, assistant at Maharat during siege

Maharat was a perfect fit for me. I had lost sight in one eye in 2013 and had troubles finding jobs in other sectors.

Abdallah, a�er unsuccessful job search in northern Syria he now supports his family in Istanbul.

Maharat put me on the career path to ICT., it was an important starting point. Now it’s up to me to develop further in this direction. In the IT sector it’s very important to keep yourself updated and always try to develop new skills.

Ziad, working in an IT company in Turkey, teaching himself AngularJS and Laravel and hoping to join a Turkish university soon.

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Contact Person: Ausama Sulemana.suleman@roia.orgICT for Goodnessroia.org

Roia specializes in information and communication technology (ICT) and was founded in 2012 as an independent non-profit organization. We have predominately focused our efforts on Syria and have become a leading actor in the region. Roia provides local communities and non-violent organizations with technical solutions to increase their efficiency and to continue serving people at risk.Roia’s ultimate goal is to create the right conditions to empower people to actively work towards positive change. By creating these conditions, Roia enables people to mobilize, unite and construct their own future, chiefly by

digital means. We implement projects that underpin mechanisms for human rights including freedom of speech, health, youth education, livelihood, and community stability.Roia combines a local approach with a systemic approach, providing solutions specifically designed for local contexts while developing tools to restore public services on a national scale. We understand the fundamental importance of ICT to enable individuals and groups wanting to mobilize for a good cause to broaden their reach, unite and collaborate, and we aim to expand our work to help them achieve their goals.

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