Personal Education Devices for K-12 Children
"Jara," means "root" in the Nepali language
Jara empowers children in under-resourced and low-internet / low-electricity communities to receive a quality education anytime, anywhere through the Jara Unit.
The Jara Unit is a personal education device that enables children to learn localized education content in any language without needing access to power, a quality classroom, or the Internet. The Jara Unit acts as a teaching tool for teachers to use in the classroom during self-study time and for students to continue their learning at home, especially when textbooks and workbooks are minimally available.
We work closely with communities to ensure their children can attain a quality education without losing cultural roots.
Our design process involves the following:
Designing and implementing with teachers, students, families, and communities
Building for durability and low/no-infrastructure contexts
Partnering with e-learning platforms for locally customized content
Enabling the technology to be remotely updatable
Designing for data collection (IoT)
Jara is on a mission to close the digital divide globally
The Jara Unit
We are building the Jara Unit - a solar and crank-powered education device that provides children offline access to curriculum-aligned educational content. The Jara Unit can mimic a workbook, personal tutor, a textbook, a quizzing tool, and more.
The Jara Unit supports children who have insufficient access to quality education due to humanitarian emergencies, poverty, discrimination, migration, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Jara Unit is: Durable, Charges off-the-grid, Updatable without Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) Enabled, Low-cost, Designed for the specific purpose of education, Gamified content to ensure use
Recognized by…
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We are launching in Nepal & Nigeria then scaling globally
Jara is starting our work with 10-13 year old children in Nepal and Nigeria.
In Nepal, after 2015 earthquake, many children remain in overcrowded and under-resourced temporary schools. Today 63% of K-12 students still do not have access to distance learning or the classroom, since the pandemic started.
In Nigeria, we are starting working in Ogun State, where there has been increased school closures due to the pandemic and a high need for off-grid charging/internet independent distance learning solutions like the Jara Unit
We currently have over 20 countries lined up and are choosing our next countries to partner with, so please reach out if you would like to have Jara in your community!
These children are now in a forgotten emergency, but it is still an emergency.
How does it work?
The Jara Unit
We provide emergency education through the Jara Unit - the first low-cost education device that uses basic technology and does not require any pre-existing infrastructure. This device we are building contains educational content customized to each region of deployment.
Sustainable education
People can learn anytime, anywhere. It is wireless, waterproof, dust-proof, durable, and consistently secure. In addition, it uses non-conventional, crank and solar, energy sources. Furthermore, the Jara Unit is contextually gamified in order to boost retention rate.
Contextual Education
The key to designing for humanitarian relief: assume nothing. We work with local content partners and communities in order to empower people to rebuild their communities.
Examples of Types of Education
Curriculum Aligned Courses
We collaborate with ministries of education, schools, and teachers to choose our localized courses aligned with national curriculum such as Maths, Languages, Sciences, etc.
Life-Skills
Digital Skills, Financial Literacy, Localized Masonry, Electronics Repair, and more.
Coping
How to deal with loss after natural disaster or displacement, what other resources are available, how to engage in your community, etc.
Call to Action for Partners
We partner with governments, NGOs, and corporations for implementation. If you are interested in having Jara implemented in your community or a community you are passionate about, please reach out to us at jara@joinjara.com
Call to Action Content Creators
We partner with global e-learning platforms and digital education content creators. If you would like to use the Jara Unit for your content to reach children in low-power and low-Internet communities, please reach out to us at jara@joinjara.com
Recent Recognition
Jara CEO, Soraya Fouladi, giving a speech at the United Nations Headquarters to 500 global leaders for International Youth Day 2019.
CISCO LIVE!
We are so excited to announce that the Jara team won the Grand Prize of $20,000 at Cisco Live in Melbourne, Australia! Our Founding CEO, Soraya Fouladi, and Chief Strategy Officer, Pumla Maswanganyi, were invited to present and compete among other entrepreneurs in the week-long conference.
Samsung Forum
Soraya became the youngest entrepreneur to be invited to speak at Samsung Semiconductor’s Silicon Valley headquarters for the company’s executives and employees from around the world. See her talk below.
1850 Bold pioneers
The Jara team was chosen as 1 of 3 entrepreneurs to compete in 1850 Coffee’s Bold Pioneers Challenge. We tied for first place, winning $5,000 and recognition from Forbes, Bustle, and PR Newswire.
We are excited to announce that we are rapidly growing, and would love for you to join the journey. Sign up with your email address to receive news, updates, and opportunities within Jara.
If you have any questions please contact us at jara@joinjara.com
Our team is growing! Please check out our Careers page for Job and Volunteer opportunities.