3.5 million migrants in precarious circumstances have come to the city of Chiang Mai, mostly to work on construction sites, including 60,000 migrant children. They live in makeshift accommodation without decent access to education and healthcare. The Baan Dek Foundation, now a UNICEF partner, was set up in 2002 to help these children.
Launched by the Baan Dek Foundation, the Digital Superheroes Academy is an innovative project including a mobile app and open source training modules. The teaching approach is fun and simple: teach 15 life skills to children living in extreme hardship. The life skills are taught as superpowers. Once kids successfully pass each life skill, they graduate as superheroes. In the process they learn how to look after themselves and protect their rights. The course also includes a sustainable development awareness component.
The project is inspired by the Superheroes in-person learning programme developed in Chiang Mai in 2012. It won a social innovation award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2017.
Role of the ENGIE Foundation
The Foundation supported the project for a period of one year.
