Al-NahdaOverview

ABOUT US

Al-Nahda Innovative Academy is a newly established learning center in the Maadi section of Cairo, Egypt for young people who are refugees from past and present wars. The word Al-Nahda is an Arabic word for revival or renaissance. This literally means a new beginning. The current emphasis on technology means that we should do everything possible to prepare the younger generation of refugees we work with for future higher education and high-tech jobs.. Most of our students are high school age refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, escaping wars and persecution in their countries. (See GoFundMe HERE)

Refugees of African descent can't fit into Egypt social systems and hence can't access public school. There are "Learning Centers" [1] for refugee children in Cairo but they cover basic classes only, not Technology. Al-Nahda will integrate STEM education into its curriculum to ensure these students aren’t left behind in the tech revolution. The center will serve age groups of 14 to 21 years old. In particular, we will teach Electricity, Electronics, Microcomputers (embedded systems) and Internet Of Things (IOT) AND! Now more (see below).

BACKGROUND

Al-Nahda Innovative Academy was recently founded by Elijah Achiek (an Engineer and refugee from South Sudan), helped by Terry King, (a retired IBM Engineer from USA). See WHO's WHO

The school was started out of our own pockets and we’ve reached the limit of our ability. The initial idea was to operate a small computer learning center with a focus on electronics and (IOT) but with encouragement from the refugee community we have responded to a bigger challenge: establishing a larger more comprehensive learning center that will include basic Computer knowledge and an introduction to coding for younger students as well as the higher level classes. We’ve already had kids from the street walk into the startup school building and say “We heard you were teaching about computers!”. We have started classes for them.

Update: The refugee community has asked for more courses that would support students taking their exams as high school seniors. We are now actually teaching classes in English/Arabic, Biology, Math, and Physics! 3 of the students in our Electronics class are also Physics and Biology teachers.

Our Technology curriculum will immediately involve hands-on practice and projects in electronics. We aspire to have a system in place that will help and guide young individuals in discovering their talents and developing their passions about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Our motto is “Aspire to Innovate” because we believe innovation is the driving force of our modern economies. We believe that everyone should have access to STEM oriented education at an early age, and a perspective on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Many refugees here are in poverty and we feel only education can rise them up.

OUR CURRENT STEP

We are now operating in a multi-room facility in the Maadi section of Cairo SEE OUR BUILDING and we have acquired and installed 10 computers. We already have ten students learning Graphics (Photoshop), and Introduction to programming in python. We also have several begining to learn the basics of computers. But we need to leverage the future. We now have 5 older (18..24) interns we are preparing to become our STEM instructors., We have started them on a course of electronics on Coursera and we are providing them with kits of microcomputers and electronics components to immediately start with hands-on learning in Electronics. They just finished soldering and building small power supply kits and looking at AC waveforms.They will explore and then build projects to prepare for real-world work. But Most Important is they will become qualified and experienced enough by June 2024 to become our Instructors for many more high-school aged students. Terry and Elijah will be teaching these future teachers every day from Mid-February to Mid-May. We opened the learning center on 5th of February in order to sync with the south Sudan academic calendar. This is because refugee learning centers here are not recognized by the Egyptian ministry of Education. [2] We would like our students to be prepared to sit for grade 12 exams by the end of their fourth year with us. This is the reason for opting to adopt south Sudan curriculum and integrate it into our STEM model.

Here we are working with some students on Arduino projects. Elijah is the tallest guy on the left and Terry is the old guy on the right :-)

CHALLENGES

Our biggest challenge now is financial as we did not have enough funding to rent a good space to accommodate the anticipated 120 students. The approximate budget to rent a suitable school space for a year is $10,000 US. We have borrowed some money and committed to a 10 room floor of a building. More details below.

Immediate Funding Level Needs:

• 2024 $15,000 Keep barely alive, pay rent, utilities, basic expenses
• 2024 $50,000 Above plus Enough furniture and equipment, some staff support

ASPIRATIONS:

• 2024 $150,000 Above plus Electronics lab, new instructors salary, student kits / supplies
• 2024 $250,000 Above plus add MakerSpace with equipment for complex project builds.

We hope to raise these funds in February and March through personal contributions, help from well wishers, writing proposals to nongovernmental organizations and this GoFundMe. We really need enough to secure the building, a few more computers and good Internet. Also some chairs and tables! . Another challenge is getting enough electronics components for our students. Fortunately Terry King was recently in USA and brought back enough Arduino Microcomputer boards, ESP32 boards and other necessary electronics devices in February. Terry King also has connections in China through his small company yourduino.com but importing into Egypt is difficult.

OUR APPEAL TO YOU

We strongly believe that this is a call for humanity, and for young people and their families who have very little resources. Helping us set up this learning center is a step toward giving these students a chance to pursue their dreams. We can’t do it alone but with your support this is achievable.

[1] The word SCHOOL is controlled by the Egyptian Government

[2] In Egypt “schools” for refugees are managed by the UN High Commission on Refugees. They can not be labeled “Schools” but usually are called “Learning Centers”