unlocking children’s potential Rudayna Abdo tells us how, in the face of disruption, fear and displacement, education and digital literacy are helping vulnerable children thrive
Rudayna Abdo needs more laptops. Spend an hour with her as I was lucky enough to, experience her infectious passion for her work and helping others, or be inspired by her understanding of the plight of the many millions of children displaced by conflict and crises, and it’s impossible to believe she’ll be welcomed with anything but open arms. The organisation she founded, Thaki, uses the devices –perfectly usable second-hand laptops consigned to the waste pile by businesses – to provide digital literacy, e-learning, emotional support, and crucial stability to some of the worst affected children.
And it’s already achieved so much. Starting in Lebanon in 2015, providing laptops and educational resources to displaced Syrian children – the country hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees – Thaki has helped more than 30,000 marginalised and displaced young people to learn and thrive. In the Middle East, 136 organisations use its devices in refugee schools and centres and, to date, the organisation has repurposed close to 5,000 devices, saving them from landfill and preloading them with rich and diverse learning content that can be accessed offline, and from anywhere.
But there remains more to do. When Abdo began her journey with Thaki in 2015, there were around 65 million displaced people in the world. Today, that figure stands at close to 120 million. Children bear the brunt of this traumatic experience with the consequences of displacement, if unaddressed, lasting for generations, particularly given how it interrupts education and limits future opportunities.
Displaced children are often separated from family members and experience severe poverty, abuse, exploitation, and psychosocial distress. The impacts are often more severe for girls with displacement increasing the risk of violence and abuse, and exacerbating existing barriers to education. In this context, the right to equitable and
“Forced displacement is so unjust, people are made homeless through no action o F their own and o F ten looked down upon or made to F eel invisible. t here’s something so wrong with that”
fair education is a crucial lifeline, providing stability, security and a sense of normalcy in schools and organisations where risk is reduced and future potential unlocked.
FORCED DISPLACEMENT IS SO UNJUST
Abdo has firsthand experience of being displaced. During the Lebanese Civil War that began in the 1970s, she and her family left the country for their own safety, travelling by boat first to Cyprus and then on to Greece, where they settled. “It’s one of several formative periods that have influenced what I do now,” she says. “It was an intense thing to experience as a child; a time of fear, violence, and displacement. We left thinking we would return, but it wasn’t possible and my parents were concerned about disruption to schooling, which is why we ultimately moved to Greece.”
Education has always been important to Abdo. Growing up in a Palestinian family – her father has his own memories and experiences of being forced from Palestine in 1948 – she and her relatives had an important mantra: ‘the only thing you can take with you is your education’. “I remember watching a TED Talk by then Head of Global Communications for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Melissa Fleming,” she recalls. “She was talking about a young Syrian boy who had left Aleppo when he was 17, and all he managed to take with him was his school certificate because he felt his life depended on it. It just completely resonated with me.
“Fast forward to 2015. I was in Turkey during the height of the Syrian war, which had caused a huge displacement of Syrian refugees to the surrounding countries,” says Abdo. “I remember seeing a woman sitting on a bridge with her child. I took her some food and, when I gave it to her and made eye contact, it felt as though I was the first person to really see her for who she was and that she was just invisible to everyone else. It was the trigger moment – an intense feeling that forced displacement is so unjust, that people are made homeless through no action of their own and often looked down upon or made to feel invisible. There’s something so wrong with that.”
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t here are so many businesses who have devices that aren’t being used any more but still have so much to give, why don’t i have the conversation about using them For learning in l ebanon or j ordan?”
EDUCATION WAS IN CRISIS
Thaki grew out of Abdo’s frustration and sense of helplessness at the Syrian refugee crisis at a time when she was working and living in Abu Dhabi, close to the affected areas.
“I couldn’t help reflecting on how my own family had experienced displacement and hardship, but we’d been lucky to land on the side of privilege, we had opportunities, were able to rebuild our lives and have citizenship. All around me
I could see that this just wasn’t the case for so many people,” she says.
“Around the same time I was interested in waste and the environment, especially the number of devices in households and businesses that are perfectly good but constantly upgraded or thrown out. Societally, the lack of appreciation we have for things and our willingness to discard them is an ethos that’s always driven me crazy particularly when, as a mother myself, I was aware of how powerful technology could be as a learning tool. It all came together: there are so many businesses who have devices that aren’t being used
any more but still have so much to give, why don’t I have the conversation about taking them to use for learning in either Lebanon or Jordan?”
The response to this request during the startup period, says Abdo, was overwhelmingly positive. “There’s huge complexity – you’re dealing with hardware, software, borders and logistics, and different regulations depending on location. But everyone was incredibly gracious; I didn’t receive one ‘no’ from businesses.
On the ground in Lebanon at that point education was in crisis; there were 1.5 million Syrian refugees, a large proportion of whom were school age children out of school and with no access to learning. Great things were being done by the government, like the second shift school system to provide learning to more children, and many organisations were responding to the crisis, but they simply couldn’t absorb all the education. It’s the point we really stepped in to help in any way we could.”
“ i n l ebanon education was in crisis; there were 1.5 million syrian re F ugees, nearly hal F o F whom were school age children out o F school and with no access to learning”
IT’S RICH, ENGAGING AND INTERACTIVE Thaki refurbishes the second-hand devices it receives from businesses (mostly laptops that are in perfectly good condition and still working years later), and loads them with either proprietary or open source interactive offline learning content – necessary to mitigate connectivity and infrastructure challenges. It does so in collaboration with education and technology partners like National Geographic, Oxford University Press, IBM, Little Thinking Minds, and many more.
“It’s rich, engaging, and interactive learning content that complements curriculum-based learning and ranges from pure numeracy and literacy content, through to things like coding and technical skills, science, mindfulness, the sustainable development goals (SDGs), gender equality, ethics, and more. It’s about enriching the education environment as much as possible,” Abdo explains. “Our aim was to encourage curiosity in learning and for children to learn independently through our platform. You’d need years to work through the content we have available thanks to our edtech partners. We provide for children of various age levels, but the majority of our learners are elementary school-age which, sadly, is because so many older children have to leave education to work and support their families.”
“ w e’re about vulnerability and children’s needs and, while it started with re F ugees, it’s so much more than that”
Children using Thaki’s devices also gain valuable digital literacy skills, essential for improving learning, giving greater access to a wider variety of resources, and for things like social awareness, career readiness and self-guided learning, particularly important in the overcrowded classrooms many displaced children find themselves in. Such a learning environment can be challenging for students and teachers alike, but plays an essential role in providing a safe and trusted space.
“Early on I was visiting in classrooms with 50+ children, all of whom were visibly impacted by their displacement, and it was challenging to accommodate everyone – but it still meant that they weren’t on the streets, being taken into early marriages, or going through any of the other horrific things children should never have to endure,” Abdo reflects. “Over the years, the way the whole system has come together – and Thaki is only part of that system – shows the power of education. Now I can walk into
a classroom and see kids playing, running, learning, and just being children. That’s the definition of success for us: providing purpose, structure, and creating a community.”
Teachers are an essential part of that community. But, as Thaki found when it first started circulating devices, they too often have minimal digital literacy skills. To tackle this, and ensure children would make the most of the technology available, the organisation has developed a dedicated digital toolkit that includes free lesson plans, courses and videos covering fundamental topics, from language skills and maths to global issues like climate change, mindfulness and gender equality. “It’s an almost impossible task for teachers,” adds Abdo. “They’ve large classrooms, they too have to learn how to use and apply technology in the learning environment, and they’re caring for children with severe, deep trauma that’s both immediate and generational because of what they and their families have had to face.”
KEEPING GIRLS IN SCHOOL
That trauma has detrimental effects on the neurobiological, emotional and social development of children. Currently, children in Lebanon have no or limited access to science-based interventions that enhance their resilience, caused by poor health literacy, a lack of resources and of trained professionals. To address this, Thaki launched Nour’s World, an innovative, scalable, edtech app that builds children’s emotional resilience and helps them overcome the effects of trauma. Nour’s World was jointly developed between Thaki and TNO, a Dutch research and innovation organisation, and funded by the Netherlands’
Enterprise Agency. The platform integrates theories and practice across mental health including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, mindfulness, and emotion-focused therapy.
Nour’s World has been piloted with more than 300 children in Lebanon and has improved children’s socialemotional wellbeing and mood significantly. The number of children rated ‘happy’ by teachers increased from 44% to 75%, children showed statistically significant improvements in behaviour and attention, and more than 90% of parents said the app helped their child to communicate, recognise, and regulate their feelings.
While all children benefit from education, learning, and support from organisations like Thaki, girls and young women remain out of school more than boys. According to the UNHCR at global level, for every 10 refugee boys in primary school there are fewer than eight refugee girls. At secondary school the figure is worse, with fewer than seven girls for every 10 boys and, among populations where there are significant cultural barriers to girls’ education, the difference is greater.
Through education, Thaki helps girls to stay in school and avoid early and forced marriage and other challenges. “Learning is such a powerful thing for children, especially girls,” Abdo continues. “Learning digital skills is really important for everyone, and for vulnerable girls in particular, so building a strong set of digital skills enables them to have opportunities to work remotely. Many of our partners focus on education and digital literacy for women and girls, whether it’s quite nuanced like National Geographic
highlighting female racing drivers and other roles women take on that are traditionally seen as male roles, or more overt when we’re providing content on specific SDGs and gender equality.”
Since 2015 Thaki has made a significant difference to displaced and refugee children in the Middle East, thanks to both the hard work and dedication of Abdo and team, and the generosity of businesses in donating devices and learning content that have proved so valuable. It has distributed $13.8m in-kind value of distributed hardware and content that would otherwise have been waste or recycled.
The organisation’s vision to unlock children’s potential has achieved extraordinary results – according to an external evaluation by the Centre for Lebanese Studies, after six months of using Thaki laptops and resources there was a 19% increase in students reported good or very good for maths knowledge, a 21% increase in students reported good or very good for knowledge of climate change, 22% increase reported good or very good in English, and 59% increase in students’ confidence using a computer. In January, Abdo was named a Schwab Social Innovator of the Year 2024 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos. The prestigious award recognised her as a leader in digital education for marginalised children.
“I want to remain true to why I started Thaki in the first place,” says Abdo, considering how the organisation may evolve against the backdrop of ongoing global conflict and displacement. “I’ve always wanted us to fill an important gap and to be doing something that’s truly needed, and our strategic direction won’t change. We’re currently working in Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE, and my primary focus will remain the Arab world because there is so much need in the region. But, ultimately, we’re about vulnerability and children’s needs and, while it started with refugees, it’s so much more than that.
“Social and emotional learning, and trauma, are still ever present,” she says. “Being Palestinian and seeing the extent and scale of the distress and injustice that’s happening in Gaza, I want Thaki to be involved to help with the healing of the millions of displaced children. We have to be a part of that. We’ve learned a lot over the last eight years about displacement, technology, interventions, and what children need and we’re more than ready to apply that knowledge to other contexts. The global trends for displaced people, refugees, and the related impacts on people are still going in the wrong direction and we have to be involved in changing that.”
thaki.org
