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Enable digital transformation

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Equip youth with ICT skills

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Promote women's participation

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Promote digital literacy 

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The Roia Foundation developed an integrated educational program to empower disadvantaged youth living in Syria with competitive ICT skills to facilitate access to reliable livelihood opportunities. This project represents the second phase of the Maharat Academy- Syria program. In particular, the peculiar situation of Atarib, a city located in the Aleppo governorate, called for a comprehensive response to provide long term educational and livelihood opportunities to vulnerable groups, especially Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Besides this, the city’s location, infrastructural and administrative situation facilitate the strategic creation of a hub to reach more beneficiaries. During the first month of the project’s implementation, Roia rehabilitated and furnished a new educational center with digital equipment, a power generating system, solar panels and childcare rooms. By the 25th of November 2018, the center was fully equipped and operative. In parallel, Roia launched four sub-activities, including online and physical promotional campaigns, online recruitment and selection, transportation and safety planning and kick-off sessions to introduce students to the program and encourage discussions. 



The second phase of the project  (November 2018 - January 2019) saw the beneficiaries participating in  job-oriented training in digital skills. The curriculums varied according to the participants’ initial knowledge and skills, to include web design and digital marketing, digital literacy for professional productivity, accelerated freelancing training and freelance jump-start workshops. During the first two sessions, additional training hours were provided to increase the beneficiaries’ knowledge in professional English. Throughout the duration of the project, Roia actively conducted networking activities to identify potential partners in the private sector that could offer traineeship opportunities. 
Despite security concerns resulting in the early suspension of the activities, Maharat- Academy successfully reached 232 disadvantaged youth, half of whom were IDPs. Over 80% of them demonstrated a 60% increase in ICT skills between pre-intervention and post-intervention tests.

Accelerated Training

Establishment of training and workspace facility

Professional Productivity Training

Web Development Training

English Training

Internship opportunities 

Freelance Jump-Start Workshops

Progress Report: Maharat Academy - Syria

Following the encouraging results of the pilot project launched in Syria, the Roia Foundation developed an integrated program to build livelihood opportunities and strengthen access to quality education for refugees and conflict-affected communities in Turkey. With the generous contribution of the Kahane Foundation, Roia launched Maharat Academy in Istanbul during 2019. In the first phase of the project, Roia conducted needs-assessments and testing activities to assess all processes of the project, the locations’ access as well as the needs of refugee communities residing in Istanbul, Turkey. The second and third phase of the project’s implementation consisted of training activities and networking with the private sector to vet our beneficiaries and create viable job opportunities.

During the piloting phase, Roia identified and selected participants among marginalised communities and refugees living in Turkey. Through the support and in coordination with local NGOs, Roia identified 10 participants, empowered them with IT skills to join the freelance market. The support of our local network of NGOs turned out more effective than digital marketing and social media in reaching refugees and vulnerable groups. Besides this, throughout the first year, we conducted our activities within local NGOs’ facilities and eOffice facilities. This formula gave us the flexibility and accessibility to choose different locations and include different beneficiaries. Parallel to training activities, Roia designed awareness-raising campaigns to inform refugee communities about opportunities in the digital economy. 
During the second and third phase of the project, the Roia Foundation scaled up its activities to expand the project’s reach and engage more people in the mission, while adjusting the training material according to key stakeholders’ needs. As a direct result, Roia successfully  established multiple partnerships with AI and ICT private companies in Europe, US, Turkey and UAE. This allowed us to connect over 70% of our beneficiaries with job opportunities as both freelancers and remote employees. The first outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 resulted in a slight delay in our activities’ which were instead conducted online throughout the second year of the project

Digital literacy training 

Freelancing training

Software development training

Employability and job opportunities 

Progress Report: Maharat Academy - Turkey 

The Roia Foundation developed an integrated program to build livelihood opportunities and strengthen access to quality education for communities affected by war and disaster. The pilot phase started in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, in 2016. The second phase of the project started in 2017 thanks to funding from Expertise France, UKAID and Blossom Hill Foundation. The encouraging results and impact of this pilot resulted in the implementation of similar educational and livelihood projects in different locations in Syria and Turkey. 
During the first phase of the project, The Maharat Academy facility was finalized, fully equipped and operational, to provide the community living in Eastern Ghouta with reliable ICT infrastructure. The facility consisted of 2 training rooms, 1 incubator and 1 conference room, in addition to child minding and transportation services to guarantee gender inclusion and women’s safety. Besides this, we powered our infrastructure with solar panels and committed to paperless operations so we could enhance long-term sustainability and eco-friendly infrastructure.

In phase 3, Roia successfully developed and delivered the following training programs: digital literacy, productivity, web development, English and business communication, entrepreneurship and jumpstart freelancing. These have helped to improve ICT skills among disadvantaged youth and increase labor-market oriented skills. 
As a consequence of the drastic deterioration of the security situation, new measures were included to meet identified needs. These included relocation of projects and personnel and enforced security standards, mid-term adjustments in the curriculums according to the beneficiaries’ initial competencies, specific security, cultural and gender-sensitive measures.

In the mid-term, the project produced relevant spillover effects, such as new collaborations with local female-led organizations; news of our projects had a positive impact on community morale, resulting in higher self-motivation and community-engagement in the program.


Digital Literacy and Productivity Training

English Language Course

Entrepreneurship programme

Progress Report: Maharat Academy – Syria

Maharat Academy – A’zaz, represents the fourth phase of the Maharat Academy Program launched in 2016. The needs assessment and field research conducted in 2019, identified A’zaz, Aleppo, as a viable operational and strategic place for a new hub of digital education in Syria. The Maharat Academy was born, in fact, to empower vulnerable Syrian communities, in particular PWDs and IDPs, and build their skills in the ICT field. During the first quarter of the project’s implementation, our field team built up the foundations of this new chapter. 
The preparatory works started three months before the planned implementation of the activities. From July to September 2020, the Maharat team, located in A’zaz, Aleppo, was involved in preparing the center for its training and co-working purposes, getting the Maharat program on its feet, and building the foundations of future activities. These preparations involved installing equipment in the training rooms, acquiring trainers for our education programs, drawing up tailor-made curricula and the launch of online awareness campaigns. As a result, a fully equipped center was operational by early October and the curriculum and training plan for the  first sessions of digital courses were finalized. In October, the Maharat team arranged entrance examinations to identify the first beneficiaries of our program and launched the first digital literacy and g-suite training.

The participation rate for the first month stood at 80%, encouraging us to recruit more students (almost double) and expand our activities. As the number of beneficiaries and trainers increased, the organizational and physical challenges grew also, calling for a new internal strategy and functional reorganization of the Maharat center.  
In parallel, scaling-up required more efforts to guarantee gender parity in our programming. In November, a women-oriented recruitment campaign was conducted to involve more girls and women in our activities and achieve our goal of 50/50 participation rate of both men and women amongst teams, leading roles and beneficiaries.
Throughout the project’s implementation, the media and advocacy team worked constantly to raise awareness among Syrian communities about the benefits and opportunities of ICT in guaranteeing livelihood opportunities, and participating in the future’s reconstruction of the country. The almost total absence of information, data and previous cases related to ICT within the Syrian context initially hindered our advocacy and awareness-raising strategy but later became one of our program’s strengths. The pioneering nature of Maharat as well as the  encouraging results of the first quarter have constituted the core of our outreach campaigns.


Digital skills development training

Productivity training

Progress Report: Maharat Academy- Syria

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In 2021, Maharat Academy used A’zaz methodology and strategy to reach more disadvantaged youth living in North West Syria while collecting useful data on VET and ICT education in a post-conflict environment. 
In the second year of the project’s implementation, our  team conducted a regional and international labor market assessment to develop our training curriculums and meet the most in-demand ICT jobs requirements. As a result, the Academy hosted more than 20 different training and workshops - including digital literacy, Google tools, Office software package, data collection tools, professional presentation designs, project management software, information security awareness, and personal protection.
In parallel, the Maharat project reached more conflict-affected and disadvantaged youth. The Academy received more than 300 applications throughout the year, of whom 80% respected our minimum attendance rate and consequently received the certificate of completion. All of our beneficiaries successfully passed the final-evaluation test and did not require additional training sessions. 

During the first quarter of the reporting period, our team identified several challenges related to this scaling-up process. In particular, the physical assets were found inadequate to host the new beneficiaries and guarantee equal access to equipment. The training facility required maintenance and renovation, while the limited number of laptops hindered the possibility to conduct simultaneous activities. To tackle these challenges, some beneficiaries were transferred to a new facility from April onwards, while the logistics and technical team worked to provide Maharat Academy with air-conditioned rooms, display screens, and computers. These mid-term adjustments resulted in better performance, results and reported satisfaction. 
Maharat Academy’s efforts to engage women and girls in the program, helping bridge the gender digital divide, have resulted in the achievement of significant and constant results. All the training and activities conducted in 2021 reached the 50/50 participation rate of both men and women, while in some cases, women’s participation was even higher. 
Finally, as part of its strategy to improve digital literacy in post-conflict environments, Maharat media team has worked to collect data on statistics, stories and results. Sharing the stories of our trainees on social media proved to be an impactful strategy to inspire Syrian youth and engage communities in our mission.

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