What is the name of your solution?
Yeti Confetti for Refugees
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
An AI-powered Learning Companion teaching English, Math and Social-Emotional skills to out-of-school refugee children in Lebanon.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Joub Jannine, LebanonWhat type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Thirteen years into the conflict in Syria, its regional impact continues to reverberate across neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, where 12 million Syrians are forcibly displaced, with over two million of them being children entirely deprived of education, and an additional 1.3 million children at risk of dropping out of school.
Lebanon, the country hosting the highest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre, has been grappling with an unprecedented socioeconomic, political and financial crisis since October 2019 on top of the protracted Syrian refugee crisis, exacerbating vulnerabilities for both refugees and Lebanese citizens. With over half the population now living below the poverty line, and a staggering 9 out of 10 Syrian refugees reliant on humanitarian aid for basic necessities, the education of refugee children in this context suffers greatly.
45% of Syrian refugee children are out of school or in informal learning settings. This is because families are increasingly resorting to involving their children in the workforce and securing their early marriages to alleviate household financial burdens. Furthermore, social tensions between host communities and Syrian refugees have escalated in the last few years, hindering Syrian children's access to education. Even for those attending school, trauma and toxic stress from conflict, poverty, and loss can impede effective learning engagement.
This educational deprivation perpetuates inequality and exposes an entire generation of refugee children to dangerous risks such as the worst forms of child labour, multiple forms of violence and delinquency. Without intervention, the threat of a lost generation emerging from these dire circumstances looms large. While the need for more traditional forms of schooling remains, more innovative and flexible means of accessing learning in a manner that is not just one-way and facilitates student-teacher feedback and engagement is critical for millions of children to continue learning.
What is your solution?
Designed for early childhood, Yeti Confetti for Refugees is Jusoor and Lirvana Labs' AI-Personalised Learning Companion that teaches English, Math and Socio-Emotional Skills through a dynamic and contextually-appropriate intervention. Our solution for educating a generation of out-of-school refugee children is powered by "three brains and a heart":
The AI tutor generates question-based-activities, powered by over 200 blueprints with visuals and step-by-step concept explanations, so that children who could not read, write or speak clearly yet can build up their fundamental literacy and numeracy skills with a digital interface. The oral explanations (tuned to the exact combination of languages suitable for the child), explain how to approach every question, with step-by-step with oral hints and accompanied with visual aids, personalised to help the child recall concepts and imagery.
The AI-librarian draws from 800+ teacher-approved song, audiobooks, and teacher videos that are freely hosted on YouTube, and prescribe them real-time to each child, to introduce and help each child gain and retain knowledge, like a co-viewing and co-reading companion that knows the child deeply.
The AI-physician balances the librarian and the tutor's capabilities to gives childrens' brain and eyes a break every 20 minutes of interaction, with a dance or audio-only break to keep minds and eyes healthy according to the WHO screentime health recommendations.
Yeti itself is the heart of our solution, representing the Social Emotional Learning and Character Development expert who speaks to the child with positivity, encouragement and patience, building up the child's vocabulary for positive self-talk and resilience. It reframes for displaced children that failure is a mode of learning, and rewarding trying again instead of getting it right every time. Yeti also helps a child identify their feelings, highlighting their own ability to break through challenges by showing different pathways to the solution each time, building up a strong growth mindset.
Importantly, through harnessing AI technology for a low and middle incoming country (LMIC) context, Yeti Confetti for Refugees allows children who cannot realistically attend school to learn at their own pace -- whether at night after a day of work, or between their responsibilities throughout the day. It also provides each learner with teacher engagement and individually-tailored curriculum based on their strengths and weaknesses -- providing a two-way interaction that is not found with other online learning interfaces, which are often one-sided and/or present only a stock curriculum for all children that is agnostic of their individual performance and/or concept mastery.
Finally, Yeti Confetti for Refugees provides parents and teachers with updates in simple language about a child’s individual progress, including their strengths and areas of improvement. The app also generates specific activity recommendations to help strengthen learning offline. Our solution thus not only educates children but also empowers parents and teachers to effectively educate even children who are working, and encourages them to champion their children's education. Screen time can accelerate learning if done purposefully, and can prepare out-of-school children to be ready for the next grade level.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Yeti Confetti for Refugees currently serves:
Jusoor’s Learners: 15 refugee children enrolled in KG3 and Grade 1 across our three learning centers. The solution enables them to learn and practice skills in English, Math and SEL at their own pace, in the hope that they can transition smoothly into Lebanese public schools.
Jusoor’s Teachers: The project is currently being piloted in our three centers with three teachers. The teachers who are leading the project are learning immensely on how to use AI in the classrooms and we hope to use their input with other teachers and run training sessions for us when we launch the full-fledged project.
Jusoor’s Syrian Communities: including parents of Jusoor’s learners, who often find themselves struggling to secure affordable, self-paced and high-quality education for their children online.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Jusoor’s Program:
Jusoor's Refugee Education Program in Lebanon, launched in June 2013, distinguishes itself through its capacity to deliver high-quality education and essential life necessities to displaced and marginalized refugee children who otherwise lack access to these vital resources.
Operating through seven centers and partner schools, our teachers - some of whom are members of the Syrian refugee community themselves - adopt a holistic approach that integrates education with psychosocial support, and ensures maximum parental involvement. The program offers Early Childhood Education for ages 3-5, Primary Education for ages 8-13 to bridge educational gaps and facilitate transition into Lebanese formal schooling, and Azima, an innovative WhatsApp-based online learning program for out-of-school children aged 9-14 facing various challenges. Additionally, our partnership with Lirvana Labs for Yeti Confetti for Refugees platform delivery to learners demonstrates a commitment to leveraging technology for education, with plans for further expansion supported by MIT Solve.
The Team:
Our team lead, Dr. Alexandra Chen (A.B., A.M., Ed.M., PhD., Harvard University), is a child psychologist and trauma specialist serving refugees in conflict and post-conflict zones. For over a decade, Alexandra has been working with war-affected children and their families in and from the Middle East and Africa, most recently as advisor to UN agencies on the Syria crisis. Alexandra is currently partnering with UN, World Bank, government ministries and non-profit agencies to design early childhood and mental health interventions, and to provide psychotherapy for victims of sexual violence and torture in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.
Suha Tutunji, our Head of Refugee Education Program, is a passionate advocate for access to education. In her 35 years of experience in education, she has given thousands of at-risk children a concrete chance at a brighter future. Suha is a role model for educators in her home country of Lebanon and all contexts of armed conflict and forced displacement.
Christie Pang, co-Founder of Lirvana Labs where Yeti Confetti was developed, brings over a decade of experience in banking, financial planning, and government relations across Chicago, London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Her diverse roles have included Head of Technology, Media, and Telecoms in Hong Kong, Head of Stakeholder Engagement for Asia and the Americas, and Special Projects Manager to the Group Chairman of HSBC. Christie has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund Award in 2018 and the Hult @ Wharton Prize in 2019.
Clement Pang, also a co-founder of Lirvana Labs, has founded two tech ventures in Deeptech and Machine Learning, including Wavefront, which was acquired by VMware for USD 400 million. Holding 27 patents, with 70% of the code written by him at the time of purchase, Clement served as a Principal Engineer at VMware post-acquisition for three years. He is the recipient of the Founder's Award 2010 at Google, the highest honor within the company, and held the position of one of the youngest staff software engineers at Google by the age of 24.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Ensure that all children are learning in good educational environments, particularly those affected by poverty or displacement.Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
PilotWhy are you applying to Solve?
Jusoor is applying to MIT Solve not only for financial support, but also to harness the platform’s exceptional networking opportunities. We recognize the unique convergence of like-minded innovators within Solve and aim to engage these thought leaders in advancing our pioneering educational models.
Our specific challenges extend beyond financial constraints to include technical, market, and cultural barriers. We are eager to showcase our unique public-private sector partnership between a conflict zone education agency and Silicon Valley AI Edtech company. This collaboration is designed to bridge significant opportunity gaps for displaced children by integrating cutting-edge technology and personalized learning strategies into our programs. Moreover, Solve's platform provides a critical space to share our successes and challenges, learning from and contributing to a community dedicated to social impact. We believe that by demonstrating the effectiveness of our model at Solve, we can inspire other education actors to adopt or adapt similar strategies, potentially leading to a ripple effect of innovation and enhanced educational outcomes across the globe.
Ultimately, our goal in joining Solve is to catalyze systemic change within refugee education—pushing the boundaries of what is possible in humanitarian response and demonstrating that innovative, scalable solutions can profoundly uplift displaced communities. Through this collaboration, we aspire to not just support thousands of learners but to influence the sector in a way that could potentially benefit millions.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Dr. Alexandra Chen, Interim Executive Director at Jusoor
What makes your solution innovative?
Our solution takes a novel approach to addressing the educational challenges faced by Syrian refugee learners in Lebanon, particularly by integrating AI-enabled technology into the learning process. Unlike many schools and NGOs in Lebanon that still rely on traditional curriculums within formal and non-formal education, our collaboration on Yeti Confetti for Refugees leverages cutting-edge AI technology to provide personalized and adaptive learning experiences for our learners. By utilizing AI algorithms, we can tailor educational content to meet the individual needs and learning styles of each of our learners, thereby enhancing engagement and improving learning outcomes.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
Theory of Change: By implementing Yeti Confetti for Refugees, we aim to empower out-of-school refugee students to acquire essential skills in English, Math, and SEL at their own pace. This approach seeks to establish a solid educational foundation for our learners, enhance teacher capabilities in utilizing AI in classrooms, and provide parents with a reliable, affordable, and high-quality education solution.
Outputs:
Use Yeti Confetti for Refugees: to deliver standards-aligned instruction in English, Math, and SEL children enrolled in KG3 to Grades 1.
Teacher Training: Pilot the program with teachers across Jusoor's centers, enabling them to learn and integrate AI technology effectively into classroom practices.
Community Engagement: Engage refugee parents, caregivers, and communities by offering a self-paced, high-quality education solution that is accessible and affordable.
Short-Term Outcomes:
Increased Student Engagement: Achieve a high level of student participation and engagement, with children actively learning and practicing skills in English, Math, and SEL.
Teacher Skill Enhancement: Equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to utilize AI technology effectively in classrooms, fostering innovative teaching methods and approaches.
Parental Involvement: Increase parental engagement and satisfaction by providing a reliable and accessible online education solution where they can track their children’s progress.
Long-Term Outcomes:
Lifelong Learning Foundation: Establish a solid educational foundation for refugee children, ensuring sustained academic growth, confidence, and readiness for future educational opportunities and challenges.
Scalable Teacher Training Program: Utilize the insights and experiences gained from the pilot program to run comprehensive training sessions for other teachers.
Impact: Empower out-of-school refugee children in Lebanon through high quality online education.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
Impact Goals and Measurement of Progress:
Our impact goals for this partnership are centered around empowering refugee children with essential skills for academic success, enhancing teacher capabilities through innovative AI-integrated teaching methods, and providing parents with reliable, affordable, and high-quality education solutions.
Impact Goals:
Foundational Skill Development: Equip refugee children (KG3 to Grades 1) with foundational skills in English, Math, and SEL.
Teacher Skill Enhancement and Innovation: Enhance teachers' abilities to track and differentiate between memorization and understanding, focusing on specific areas like counting, through effective use of AI technology in classrooms.
Parental Engagement and Support: Strengthen parents' commitment to education (even outside formal schooling) by providing a reliable and accessible online education solution.
Measurement of Progress:
To measure our progress towards these impact goals, we will utilize a customizable Data Visualization dashboard provided by Lirvana Labs, which will assist in continuous tracking and reporting throughout the 2024-25 academic year.
Specific Indicators for Measurement:
- User Engagement Metrics:
- Time spent on platform per day, week, month or whole summer
- Weekly Active Learners / Days Active per week
- Session numbers and time spent learning
- Number of interactions with content types including:
- Curriculum-aligned learning video views, split by Topic, Skill, Subject or Discipline alignment
- Number of problem sets attempted, split by Topic, Skill, Subject or Discipline alignment
- Learner retention metrics, such as the number of weekly activity and churn rate (inactives per week or per month)
2. Learning Success Metrics:
Completion rate of skill modules overall and specific grade-level aligned mastery over time (real-time, weekly, monthly, program length)
Knowledge acquisition - track performance, number of meaningful attempts, and level of knowledge depth and breadth over any periods of time, including:
Number of correct and incorrect attempts made per set (count and %)
Depth of Knowledge into 75+ standard’s aligned skills, demonstrated by complexity of problem sets (aligned to Blooms Taxonomy)
Breadth of skills covered, demonstrated by number of new skills started per Discipline (with formative assessments attempted as signal of skill start)
These provide insights into learner comprehension, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Drill down to potential growth areas:
Time spent on specific questions, split by Topic, Skill, Subject or Discipline alignment
The number of attempts per problem set, split by Topic, Skill, Subject or Discipline alignment These can improve lesson planning and identify potential difficulties for learners
Overall knowledge retention and learning outcome change - reveals the long-term impact of using the app by measuring the net delta of a capstone assessment at the end of summer, compared to a baseline assessment at the beginning of the summer, net of any changes in the Control Group (Group C).
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Yeti Confetti for Refugees is a mobile device application supported on iOs, Android and Chromebook environments. It harnesses AI and cognitive research to act as a versatile educational companion, and empowers parents and teachers with actionable insights into each child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. The platform creates engaging, healthy, and multi-model learning experiences spanning over 200 English Literacy, Mathematical Reasoning, and SEL Skills aligned with Common Core, CASEL, and Bloom’s Taxonomy frameworks.
In developing Yeti Confetti for Refugees, Lirvana Labs’ team of Data Scientists, Machine Learning engineers and Data Architects started studying and constructing their own machinery since 2021, including the deployment of observable Markov decision process planning (for individual adaptive lesson plans), content taxonomy and prescription using a trained LLM (web-crawl of multimedia content and then alignment to curriculum standards at scale), and long-term memory storage & continuous distillation (to form unique learner profiles for each child and optimize for their learning outcome change). After 2+ years of adopting multiple foundational models in architecture, processing, front-end delivery, and rigorous testing with 200+ families in Hong Kong, Thailand, the Middle East, and California during the same time, the first AI-powered application for mobile devices, Yeti Confetti Kids, launched on the App Store with a unique model that adapts to the child's individual needs, learning pace, and preferences, delivering tailored content and human-like feedback to engage, instruct, encourage, and reinforce all concepts a child is learning through participatory virtual activities. The AI layers we built play the role of Librarian (finding healthy content), Tutor (teaching and "scaffolding" knowledge), Nanny (fun, balance and engagement), and Pediatrician (mental and eye health standards in accordance with the WHO and APA), at a fully personalized level. Every interaction - be it a song, audiobook, video, dance break, and interactive quiz a child plays in-app - is purposefully chosen for the child to maximize learning outcome change.
List of core technologies and 5 patentable IP layers*:
Microservice Architecture (Java + Python) on K8s on GKE;
FoundationDB (Apple) for Storage (also on K8s);
Flutter FE on Android/iOS/(Web);
Knowledge Graph AI+Human Curated (to-be-clustered)*;
Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) Planner*;
Web Crawling for Content + Session Planning via LLM*;
Proprietary Assessment Framework (Multi-Modalities);
Long-term Memory Storage and Continuous Distillation via LLM*;
Immersive Instruction and Content Personalization via LLM*;
Interrogative Interface to Stored Data.
In addition to the above backend layers, the front-end application layer deploys the following GenAI, Voice, and cutting-edge animation technology to ensure effective and engaging learning experiences for children across language boundaries:
ASR oral diagnostics on Phonemic Awareness and Decoding words;
Generative Voice technology, powered by ElevenLabs partnership;
Speech2phonemes processing node and dynamic animation stack for accurate UFLI standard Phonetic Mouthing.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technology
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
Yeti Confetti’s Website: https://www.yeticonfettikids.com/ - Yeti Confetti’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/play.yeti/ Yeti Confetti’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@YetiConfettiKids - Jusoor and Lirvana Lab’s Collaboration Fundraiser: https://www.yeticonfettikids.com/support-jusoor Interview with Lirvana Lab Co-Founder about Yeti Confetti and Jusoor: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-christie-pang/ Latest Blog about funds raised for the app and partnership: https://techfundingnews.com/edtech-startup-founded-by-siblings-bags-5-3m-for-ai-powered-learning-app/
How many people work on your solution team?
- Full-time staff: 9
- Part-time staff: 2
- Contractors / Other workers: 2
How long have you been working on your solution?
- Jusoor’s Refugee Education Program: 11 years (since 2013)
- Yeti Confetti App: 1 year
- Yetti Confetti for Refugees: 5 months
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
Jusoor places a high priority on cultivating a diverse, inclusive workplace environment where all team members feel welcomed and valued. The organization’s dedication to diversity and equal opportunity is firmly embedded within its core principles and viewed as crucial for achieving success.
Jusoor’s recruitment strategy is solely merit-based, with candidates assessed strictly according to their skills, qualifications, and potential to contribute to the team. The organization actively seeks talent regardless of age, nationality, ethnicity, or other personal attributes. This fair and unbiased approach has enabled Jusoor to assemble a truly global workforce comprised of individuals from varied backgrounds and cultures across the world. Moreover, hiring decisions at Jusoor involve collective input rather than being determined by a single individual.
For newly onboarded team members, Jusoor implements a comprehensive onboarding program aimed at facilitating their long-term success and integration into the organizational culture. This program extends beyond the technical facets of the role to focus on seamlessly acclimating new hires to the team dynamics and fostering an immediate sense of belonging.
Jusoor actively encourages and facilitates regular interaction and rapport-building among team members. The organization arranges team-building activities, team meetings, and collaborative projects to promote cross-functional collaboration and team cohesion. Additionally, Jusoor makes a concerted effort to acknowledge and celebrate team members’ accomplishments and milestones, recognizing their contributions and cultivating an appreciative and inclusive workplace culture.
Furthermore, Jusoor maintains a robust feedback system to ensure every team member’s voice is heard and their concerns are promptly addressed. During the initial three months of employment, the organization conducts monthly one-on-one check-ins with the HR team, providing new hires with a safe and confidential outlet to share their experiences, raise any issues, and offer valuable feedback.
Jusoor’s commitment to inclusivity transcends the team; the organization’s leadership and board are held accountable for upholding these values as well. Complaints and concerns raised by team members are treated with utmost seriousness, and the board is committed to swiftly and decisively addressing any issues that arise.
What is your business model?
Jusoor’s business model is strategically designed to provide value for the communities we serve, leveraging diversified income streams including grant applications, awards, family foundations, CSRs, high-net-worth individuals, crowdfunding, campaigning, and partnerships. A significant component of our business model is rooted in widespread support from individual supporters, particularly from the Syrian and MENA region diaspora. Many of our donors have been supporting our work for over a decade, demonstrating a deep commitment to our mission. This sustained support underscores the trust and credibility we have established among our stakeholders. We leverage this global support to deliver impactful educational and entrepreneurial programs that directly address the needs and aspirations of Syrian refugees and their host communities.
Our service offerings are structured around four pillar programs: Refugee Education, Scholarships, Entrepreneurship and Career Development. Each program is designed to bridge the opportunity gap for talented Syrians and their host communities by providing targeted, tailored interventions that respond to the unique challenges faced by our beneficiaries.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
Jusoor’s strategic approach to financial sustainability is underpinned by a diversified funding model that ensures the organization’s resilience and ability to deliver impact over the long term. Our robust fundraising department, backed by an active board of directors, plays a pivotal role in securing and managing our financial resources to support our mission and achieve sustainability.
Since its establishment in 2011, Jusoor has demonstrated significant growth in financial stability and program expansion, with an annual portfolio of approximately $3,000,000 USD. This growth has been facilitated by a broad base of support, including substantial annual contributions from Syrian and MENA region diaspora members. These contributions not only reflect the trust and commitment of our community but also provide a reliable source of funding year over year. Furthermore, our diverse funding portfolio is grounded in a core group of committed funders whose belief in our mission and impact has held steady for over half a decade.
A notable milestone in our funding journey was the prestigious support from MacKenzie Scott, which has significantly strengthened our financial foundation and catalyzed our strategy. This generous funding is a testament to the effectiveness of our work and the confidence of high-profile donors in our ability to deliver results.
In addition to individual and philanthropic contributions, Jusoor is actively engaged in deepening high-level institutional partnerships to expand our reach and impact. These partnerships not only provide financial resources but also enhance our capacity to innovate and scale our interventions.
Jusoor operates as a non-political, non-religious organization and is registered globally as a US 501(c)(3) in the US, and as a charitable organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Jordan, and Lebanon. This global registration not only facilitates a wider base of support but also aligns with our commitment to transparency and accountability.
Our financial sustainability strategy includes the continuous growth of our funding base, ensuring long-term revenue streams to cover core costs. The success of our financial strategies is evident in our ability to consistently meet and exceed our funding goals, ensuring the sustainability and scalability of our operations. As we move forward, Jusoor remains committed to strengthening its financial base, ensuring that we can continue to make a significant impact in the lives of many, guided by a clear vision and a strategic approach to financial management.
Solution Team
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AC
Dr. Alexandra Chen Interim Executive Director and Trustee, Jusoor
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Our Organization
Jusoor