Youth Impact Philippines (TISA)

CONNECT-ED CHALLENGE; PHILIPPINES

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

ConnectEd Education Program

Learn more about the ConnectEd Challenge and how a high-access, low-cost phone-based innovation can deliver remedial education to underserved primary-aged learners.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Youth Impact Philippines (TISA) will utilize TISA-hired and trained facilitators to deliver mEducation (ConnectEd), which will allow the venture to test and adjust for optimization through different delivery models, including testing necessary variations for different regions across the Philippines.

The venture will operate in areas frequently exposed to disasters such as typhoons, floods, landslides, and earthquakes. It will identify key government champions at local and regional levels where there is demand to launch mEducation and advocate for its spread. Additionally, the team will build a direct delivery high-quality demonstration arm to experiment, optimize, and share learning, feeding directly into government-led delivery.

To achieve its goals, TISA will train and support teachers by leveraging TISA-hired youth facilitators to lead master training, identifying a cohort of master teacher trainers to further train, mentor, and support teachers in their communities. They will also establish monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems to collect and use timely and actionable data and share this at all levels from households to communities, schools, school divisions, and regional and national leadership.

Youth Impact Philippines (TISA) is led by Mariel Bayangos, Maria Perlita de Leon, and Desiree Gestiada. They initiated TISA after Mariel’s impactful career of over 10 years in the Ministry of Education. TISA is a Filipino term for chalk, which represents the classroom. It also symbolizes learning, the infinite thirst for knowledge and understanding.

The team is a mix of experiences from the government sector and development work. They have solid, grounded experience and expertise in the education sector, ranging from education policies, education governance, curriculum design and implementation, and partnerships.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 200 Grades 3 - 6 elementary school students during the pilot.

• Distribute the ConnectEd proven intervention only.

• Raise an additional USD 500,000 during the pilot.

FOUNDING TEAM

Mariel Bayangos - Founder

Maria Perlita de Leon - Founder

Desiree Gestiada - Founder

Youth Impact India

CONNECT-ED CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

ConnectEd Education Program

Learn more about the ConnectEd Challenge and how a high-access, low-cost phone-based innovation can deliver remedial education to underserved primary-aged learners.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Youth Impact India is leveraging proven, inclusive, and resilient approaches to transform foundational numeracy for children in India’s deepest hinterlands.

Its model is the Indian adaptation of ConnectEd, where trained facilitators coordinate with the government school teachers and select students from primary grade and tutor them through regular 1:1 phone calls focused on foundational numeracy. Instruction is tailored to each child’s learning level and reinforced by actively involving caregivers in the learning journey.

After every tutoring call, facilitators record assessment details and track progress, share the insights with teachers, ensuring continuous feedback loops. Students are engaged across multiple cycles in an academic year, strengthening retention and learning gains. The critical feature is that it will complement the government scheme, which mandates teachers to conduct tutoring calls. It makes the effort inherently scalable.

The founding team comprises Rohan and Subash, who together bring deep expertise in government partnerships, education program design, and system-level reforms. Their combined experience spans large-scale program delivery, data and technology integration, and on-ground implementation in collaboration with state governments. This unique blend of strategic leadership and grassroots execution equips the team to drive evidence-based innovations at scale.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 540 children during the pilot.

• Distribute 3420 proven interventions during the pilot.

• Raise an additional USD 25,000 during the pilot.

FOUNDING TEAM

Rohan S Katepallewar - Founder

Subash Prabhakaran - Founder

Ethio-ConnectEd

CONNECT-ED CHALLENGE; Ethiopia

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

ConnectEd Education Program

Learn more about the ConnectEd Challenge and how a high-access, low-cost phone-based innovation can deliver remedial education to underserved primary-aged learners.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Ethio-ConnectEd empowers children whose education has been disrupted by crisis to rebuild their learning, strengthen essential skills, and unlock brighter futures.

Ethio-ConnectEd delivers phone-based tutoring to children whose education has been disrupted by conflict and natural disasters. The pilot is based in the Tigray region, reaching 200 disadvantaged primary school children with numeracy-focused support. By customizing materials to local languages and education systems, and working through capacitated local teams, they ensure that learning is accessible and culturally relevant. What sets them apart is their ability to combine rigorous research with practical, low-cost delivery, creating solutions that can be scaled to reach tens of thousands of children across Ethiopia.

ConnectEd was launched in 2023 as a pilot project in partnership with Youth Impact, Botswana. Building on the success and demonstrated impact of the pilot, Gidisa Lachisa Tato, the Founder, is establishing a standalone organization in Ethiopia, named Ethio-ConnectEd.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 200 most disadvantaged children in remote and conflict-affected areas in the Tigray region.

• Using 14 well-trained teachers, provide 6 weeks of phone-based numeracy tutoring for 200 children.

• For intervention scale-up, fundraise an additional USD 50,000 from new donors or affiliate partner organisations.

FOUNDING TEAM

Dr Gidisa Lachisa Tato - Founder