Project Type: Virtual or On-site
When: Dates flexible
Mathare Valley, like many urban informal settlements in Kenya, and one of the largest in East Africa, struggles with extreme overpopulation, disease, and violence, with hundreds of thousands of people living within a three-mile radius. Among some of the community’s most pressing concerns is their inadequate education. In Mathare Valley, there are only three government primary schools to serve over 150,000 school-aged children.
Cofounder Tiffany Cheng Nyaggah saw an opportunity to strengthen what the community had started and raise the bar for education in marginalized communities. In 2008, Dignitas partnered with community leader Steve Kariithi. They began working closely with these community schools to better understand their strengths and needs.
In 2011 Dignitas launched the Leadership Institute – a multi-year partnership program designed to develop dedicated teachers into highly skilled and motivated school leaders and educators. Project staff members provide school-based leaders with professional development, onsite coaching, and technical assistance in order to develop the skills needed to manage and lead a high performing, dynamic, and accountable organization in the service of children and families.
Project Opportunity: The overall objective of a partnership with Team4Tech is to leverage technology to enable broader and deeper impact – reaching more educators and offering a wider variety of learning and engagement opportunities. Specifically, they would like a team of volunteers to:
- Having taken the initial steps towards creating and LMS and converting their training materials for digital consumption with the help of Team4Tech volunteers in 2020, Dignitas would now like a team of volunteers to help them refine the platform and expand the digital content.
- Dignitas would also like to have volunteers help design and deploy tools to increase user engagement and to improve the overall user experience.
- With a more optimized online learning experience, they will need volunteers to help plan and potentially launch efforts to create an earned revenue stream from the platform.
Impact: Since 2011, Dignitas has benefited over 57,000 students by equipping 1,029 teachers with the skills, concepts, and attitude to transform their schools.