When education tastes sweeter than winning the lottery
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[Applause]
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so
last week i shared with my students that
i never want to win the lottery
earning my salary by giving them new
insights gives me a certain satisfaction
i may have found another way which gives
me even a feeling which goes beyond
that satisfaction and maybe that will
work for you as well
five years ago i was invited to a
conference by microsoft
about education and technology usually
those conferences take three days they
have multiple speakers
and they tend to be pretty bad for your
diet
but one of those sessions was atypical i
had a very strange name which was
kakuma during that session
we had a skype call with moses who is a
consultant at the kakuma refugee camp
the kakuma refugee camp is based in
kenya houses 200
000 refugees who fled from war and
hunger
in sudan somalia burundi to name a few
55 percent of all refugees are children
this year only 5 000 young people
arrived in a camp with
no relatives at all in 2015
the camp had 50 different schools with
classrooms typically housing up to 200
refugees
with no access to textbooks nor
any other educational resources
only one in three teachers is certified
to teach
and while many people are born in the
camp most people will be living
in the camp for the rest of their lives
some people
those who are really highly educated
they may have the best shot to be sent
to another continent
to live a new life and for them it’s
like winning
the lottery now being a teacher myself
for 15 years during that session
i promised moses to help him to increase
the level of education in the camp
by teaching the refugees through skype
back home i started to read about the
camp
and i started to realize i was quite
naive because the kakuma schools don’t
have
skype computers
not even electricity but i made a
certain promise
and i decided to make it happen and so i
shipped my own laptop to the camp
and the local ngo was kind enough to
share their internet connection
i started to teach the refugees in my
own kitchen science
english math and i really loved it
but one teacher one single teacher
trying to reach
thousands of refugees that really
doesn’t make any sense
so why he invited other people through
social media
to join the project and many people
responded positively we had our first
community after a few months
with more than 100 teachers across
45 different countries willing to do
more
than teaching their own students
then the laptop disappeared and
mysteriously enough the local ngo lost
interest to share internet as well i
had a very important decision to make
and
leaving it like that or starting all
over again from scratch
at that time belgian architects picked
up the story in a newspaper
they reached out to me and together we
decided to build a school our own school
in the kakuma camp
after chasing some funding we were able
to equip that school with solar panels
we had laptops even two refugees
dedicated to the project
this was last year we now had our
own learning hub and we were able to
scale up to reach more people
more teachers and students
united nations became an official
partner the world economic forum called
it
one of the top schools in the world
pioneering
the future of education a hollywood crew
even came over to cover the project
by creating a netflix documentary
now many people love this story
because we are offering a free education
to some of the poorest people on earth
but there was an unexpected side effect
turned out we were doing more than
teaching refugees
allow me to explain through this model
at the left side we have the kakuma
students
at the other side we have students from
every corner of the world let’s call
them
the global students and the idea was
offering
knowledge through a virtual interaction
but kakuma students turned out to give
something back
which was potentially even more valuable
they talk about their dreadful lives and
still they smile from ear to ear
they share their passion for football
and don’t complain while mentioning that
they only have food once a day
they share an authentic view into their
lives
and through those intercultural
exchanges
we noticed that the mindset
of the global students began to change
because during those calls they began to
appreciate each other
and this became our unique way to fight
a global threat called polarization
turned out that this blue arrow was the
cherry on the top
now i have a question for you
what if this model can be replicated can
be used to scale
up to tackle other global issues
an issue i personally feel is affecting
all of us something what’s urgent
everybody’s speaking about it especially
young people
climate change i decided to launch a new
project this time with
groups of students in every continent we
ask
them to focus on the causes and effects
of climate change we ask them to create
small videos
with their findings to be uploaded to
the website
by their teachers this way students were
able to learn from each other in very
authentic ways
in australia students reported that
their country is suffering from
bushfires
in ireland the students mentioned that
their schools were closed for the very
first time in history due to hurricanes
in sierra leone a teacher’s house was
partly destroyed due to mud flows
we also asked those students to have
live virtual interactions
to share their concerns those findings
and we had our first arrow
knowledge but
we soon discovered that the students
were willing to do more
american students they developed a solar
suitcase which has a battery
and solar panels they shipped to the
kakuma refugee camp
where now one school has free
electricity
irish students they focused on the waste
management symbols
they noticed that they were inconsistent
they invited
their minister for climate change to
come to their school
and requested a new symbol
this way they brought national change
and even later received a letter from
their president
congratulating on what they did
portuguese students created a waste
machine something what recycles plastic
waste they shipped this machine to
mozambique
where now people are able to recycle
nine
tons of plastic waste and turn it into
new objects
barrels and cutlery bricks tiles
providing four people of a salary
and this teacher from malawi his name is
andrews i know him personally i met him
at that conference in dubai
though and we started to chat and he
told me like
my students planted trees
to save a lake in malawi
now the thing with those conferences is
that you get to speak with people from
the uk
from ireland india africa
and they all have different accents so
when i asked him like how many trees did
they plant i thought he was saying
60 000 trees i was already impressed you
know
but turned out that he was saying 60
million trees
how about that it’s not extraordinary we
have
hundreds of those kind of stories
we noticed that the students went beyond
learning about climate change
they didn’t go on a street start yelling
no
they came with solutions
they enjoyed going the extra mile
by finding meaningful ways to take
action
for a green planet
after watching their videos with their
findings we noticed
that their behavior started to change
their mindset
again we had our blue arrow
the project started to grow became more
structured those teachers who have been
there from the very beginning they
were called ambassadors they were the
ones
who helped the project to grow they
reached out to press
and presidents
last year we had two and a half million
participants
our community reached out to ministries
of education
in 15 different countries
we co-authored a book with wwf
translated this and made it available in
15 different languages in one single
week
rick davis from nasa you reached out to
me and offered to send our students
messages of hope
to mars the project was endorsed
by jane goodall queen elizabeth and
dalai lama
but the true heroes are
the students they prove that they have
the capacity to do
more than learning about climate change
they have the potential to come up with
solutions and take action
now great story but
why would you care right
what if what if this
model would work for you in your
personal life
let me share an example from my life
last month my son mogul came to me
and he was like that what you’re doing
and then i told him like i’m reading a
book about plastic and
did you know that 80 of old tap
water on a global scale has
small tiny little plastic fibers
micro plastics he was instantly
interested
he took his own laptop and started to
read about it
now he is nine and at his school they
have to do three presentations this year
and he did one on plastics
and how to create your own bio plastic
with milk
and vinegar now
because of him not me his
friends mindset and behavior may have
started to change
this model can be applied to your life
too
even in a broader context in your own
environment
and not necessarily with young people
you can be one of those dots too
to do so you start interacting with
people like friends
family neighbors even ceos
or government leaders you can be the
change too
let’s take a closer look at some common
things which may happen in your
life maybe
you’ve been watching a netflix series
about poverty
lately or maybe you read an article
about deforestation in brazil
or maybe you’ve been really really
irritated about
spotting fake news on social media
it doesn’t have to end there
let’s take a closer look at how a mutual
exchange of mindset and
knowledge can lead to a greater whole
maybe you can try to find out
how to support the local food bank
or maybe you can reach out to your boss
and ultimately decide to start a tree
planting
with the whole office or
you can explain to your niece and your
nephew the importance of critical
thinking
and how fake news can be a threat
to democracy so that they feel
sensitized
to check their resources at all times
and are not inclined to share
polarizing messages on social media in
the future
you can be the first brick
of a series of falling dominoes which
ultimately
can lead to people taking action
for a better planet for a good cause
this model clearly leads to a win-win
good for you good for the planet
all you have to do is open up your
mindset
to those people and those issues
do believe you have the potential
to inspire other people
it will be the start of your fully
rewarding journey
ladies and gentlemen it will be
your winning lottery ticket
thank you