We created Project Akshar (Alphabets), where we set out to graduate Dubai's labourers from blue collar to white collar for $0.
We first launched free English classes.
But we needed labourers to register and create excitement about the classes. And to encourage them to register and enroll, we first needed to show them how easy it is to learn English.
The Brief
In Dubai, learning English will help its many labourers get better jobs and salaries.
But with average monthly salaries of $220, and a hard life of 12-hour work shifts, they neither have the money nor time to educate themselves.
SmartLife, an NGO for Dubai's labourers, wanted to help them improve their status and quality of life.
How the final design was conceived
Using effective visual learning techniques:
(1) We took words that are useful to them
(2) We wrote their English phonetic pronounciations in the Hindi script, and
(3) We then combined the Hindi words with their visual representation integrated into the Hindi alphabets.
(4) And as a result, we created words that teach them English through their own language.
Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
We’re transforming their lives of labour into lives of learning:
(1) 4000+ students graduated.
(2) 28% cleared job interviews for white-collar jobs.
(3) 12% started businesses back home.
(4) 23% got promoted to white-collar jobs from existing blue-collar jobs in the same companies.
(5) 37% got higher salaries including a labourer graduating from 800 AED (~$220) to 8000 AED (~$2200) per month.
(6) The project is invited to be a part of the Government’s ‘Happy Dubai’ initiative.
(7) All costs were pro bono ($0) courtesy our partners.
(8) Unprecedented earned media worth $230,000 across TV, Press, Radio and Social Media.
SmartLife is an NPO/NGO for Dubai's labourers, run by white-collared professionals on a volunteering basis.
SmartLife's core purpose is to improve the quality and the status of the labourer community in the UAE; shifting them from blue-collar to white-collar.
They do this through different channels:
(1) Education - we created free English classes as part of Project Akshar (Alphabets)
(2) Talent and Skills development - through learning as well as entertainment programs
In terms of marketing budgets, being an NGO, their budgets are $0 and they create work based on the strength of their ideas and partnerships out of it.