SmileyTutor Multi-Site EdTech & Refugee-Camp Digitisation Rollout
Gamified digital learning in community libraries and refugee camps, with a 21% improvement in math proficiency, including refugee cohorts.
- Responsibility
- Directed the country-level SmileyTutor rollout and oversaw education programming across 11 sites in Kakuma and Kalobeyei.
- Scale
- 30+ digitised community libraries, 11 refugee-camp sites, 400+ refugee learners reached and 3,500+ learners sustained.
- Headline result
- 21% improvement in math proficiency across target student populations, including refugee cohorts.
- Management skills shown
- Multi-site rollout, M&E quality assurance, team supervision, incentive-budget management.
Theory of change
Goal: To improve foundational literacy, numeracy and math proficiency among underserved and refugee youth through localised EdTech and library digitisation in high-need refugee environments.
Intervention pathway: If we co-design community library digitisations and deploy gamified digital learning tools (SmileyTutor) across 30+ sites, including 11 sites in the Kakuma refugee complex and Kalobeyei settlement, while engaging refugee community coordinators and families under a strict M&E progress-monitoring framework, then refugee students will overcome traditional learning barriers and show measurable academic improvement.
Situation
Rapid displacement, restricted mobility and scarce resources in Kakuma and Kalobeyei left hundreds of refugee children without reliable access to quality math and literacy education or to digital learning spaces.
Task
Direct the country-level rollout of SmileyTutor across 30+ digitised community libraries, and oversee education programming across 11 sites within the Kakuma refugee complex and Kalobeyei settlement.
Action
- Deliver: Led education programming across 11 sites in Kakuma and Kalobeyei, extending platform access to 400+ refugee learners through customised orientation and peer-support structures.
- Monitor and evaluate: Led virtual coordination and M&E quality assurance across programme sites in 11 countries, flagging implementation gaps to leadership so they could be corrected with data.
- Lead the team: Supervised a multi-site team of facilitators and refugee community coordinators, delivering standardised training on foundational literacy, numeracy instruction and platform operation.
- Manage the budget: Managed the SmileyCoin incentive ecosystem within fixed budget allocations, sustaining 3,500+ learners (including refugee youth) and improving tool uptime by 30%.
What I led and what the team delivered
I directed the rollout, oversaw programming at the 11 refugee-camp sites and managed the SmileyCoin incentive budget. Day-to-day facilitation was delivered by the site facilitators and refugee community coordinators I supervised. The SmileyTutor platform and SmileyCoin system belong to the wider Smiley Charity / Education in a Suitcase initiative.
Result
- Drove a 21% improvement in math proficiency across target student populations, including refugee cohorts.
- Maintained continuous uptime and engagement for 3,500+ learners through an optimised incentive ecosystem.
- Built school and community partnerships that increased collaboration by 38% and youth participation by 28%.
Learnings & sustainability
Specialised refugee-camp programming in Kakuma and Kalobeyei shows that pairing community library digitisation with localised coordinator training bridges the educational divide in displaced contexts more effectively than top-down software distribution.