Utilizing Meta to Educate Trafficked Children

When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta in 2021, he said that Meta “will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together.” Not being a techy person, I thought, “Another creepy, crazy universe that will lead to no much good.” 

I’m Evelyne Keomian, Founder and Executive Director of the Karat School Project (KSP). At the KSP, our mission is to help break the cycle of poverty, all while alleviating urgent needs through education. We serve families living in Residential Vehicles (RVs) in and around Palo Alto. We have a school in Cote d’Ivoire where we serve children who were once trafficked, labored, orphans from the boat immigration crisis, and so on. 

Science & Tech learning. Screenshot captured through a Portal observation.

The KSP is based in the San Francisco Peninsula. We do our best to utilize technology for our grassroots organization and the communities we serve here in Bay and Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa.  

In 2021, when the newly rebranded Meta offered its Portals devices to grassroots nonprofits through Techsoup, I saw an opportunity to improve our education system and offer more training to support our teachers on the ground, and I immediately seized the opportunity. I emailed those in charge of the offering to clarify that this request was exclusively for our educational center in Cote d’Ivoire. They emailed something back to the effect of “Thank you for your transparency. You can go ahead and place your order. We want to make an impact in the world.” We placed an order for four devices, one for each classroom. 

At the KSP Cote d’Ivoire, this is not our first rodeo with Technology. In 2020, knowing that most of the parents of the children at our school were illiterate and couldn’t afford a table or a computer,  I worked with our teachers to record lessons via WhatApps and print the work pages that went with it in anticipation of a COVID shutdown. When Cote d’Ivoire shut down for weeks, as did the rest of the world, we purchased tablets with WhatsApp capacity and equipped each one of our then 35 families. As a result, we were the only school that continued education remotely in the country.

Students listening to teachers deliver lessons via the WhatsApp App in 2020 

Since our inception in 2018, I have used Zoom to observe, train, and support teachers on the ground as they learn new educational techniques. We aim to de-colonize education and offer a child-centric and culturally relevant education through our programs, and teacher training is a pillar. 

African teachers are not trained to empower critical thinking and create culturally relevant, hands-on, and empowering experiential learning. Yet, these are educational and emotional benefits the next generation of world leaders needs.

We brainstormed with the team on the ground about ways to use the Portals to be present in the classroom for teachers' observations, real-time teaching practices, and behavior modification. 

Most mornings, I wake up at 4:30 am; by 5 am, our first Portal is on, and I can observe students and teachers in a non-intrusive way. I have become part of the classroom. I suggest open-ended questions and real-time advice for stress management for students and teachers. Working alongside our teachers, we equip our students with on-the-spot mental health management tools, such as being sent to the school garden to walk and breathe. Though I’m not an expert, I suggest ways to consider emotional intelligence in specific situations. My favorite part is that I can work on creating a hands-on curriculum for practical engagement and reading a book with the children. 

Cote d’Ivoire was a French colony, and as in many other sectors, education is in urgent need to be decolonized.  Our children come to us with many lived traumas. African teachers are not trained to empower critical thinking and create culturally relevant, hands-on, and empowering experiential learning. Yet, these are educational and emotional benefits the next generation of world leaders needs. Metaverse Portal is helping the KSP team to prioritize the teachers’ training and the children’s well-being. 

To learn more about the KSP’s mission please visit us at theksp.org.

3rd grade classroom observation via Portal

Students listening to Teacher Evelyne as she reads all the way from Palo Alto, CA (left). Kindergarten classroom observation via Portal (right).