The ideathon was the opportunity to bring the Aswatna participants, the community and high level stakeholders to come together and dream up solutions for the future... here’s what happened.
The Aswatna Ideathon was organized by en.v in collaboration with Data4Change and the CTLR at GUST, and attracted a diverse group of participants: students, educators, school administrators, CSOs, and parents. All attendees shared a unified objective: to transform educational environments into more inclusive, adaptive, and empowering spaces. The event was designed to foster dialogue, mutual understanding, and collaborative problem-solving. The ultimate goal was to reimagine educational institutions where learning is not just transactional, but transformative.
See who was at our ideathon
Diverse perspectives on an issue foster comprehensive solutions, drawing from varied experiences and knowledge. Multiple viewpoints highlight overlooked nuances, challenge biases, and promote innovative thinking. This collaborative approach ensures well-rounded interventions, maximizing effectiveness and minimizing unintended consequences. Diversity in problem-solving enriches outcomes, benefiting all.
Our solutions for the future
Over the course of three very intense days in December 2023, over 80 participants - including students, educators, creatives, designers, technologists, and civil society representatives got together to co-create pilot initiatives that could help promote more responsive, safe and inclusive schools in Kuwait. Out of the seven amazing ideas that were developed, three were selected to move into implementation.
Sidra
Project Sidra was born as a participatory research initiative to celebrate the richness and beauty of Kuwait’s cultural diversity. We set out to create tools and resources that invite people to learn about the many nationalities and demographic profiles that make up Kuwait’s shared culture and history—and to explore how these communities contribute to one another’s sense of belonging and flourishing. This led to the development of two interconnected components:
A qualitative and quantitative study exploring what it means to feel at home in Kuwait.
The Sidra Game, an interactive experience built from the research, where players engage with role-play, dilemmas, and thought-provoking challenges that open up dialogue around identity and socio-cultural belonging.
Nudge Club
Nudge Club is an innovative initiative designed to foster open dialogue, empathy, and collaboration between students and teachers in Indian schools across Kuwait. By providing a safe, inclusive space for both groups to engage in skill-building activities and trust-building exercises, Nudge Club aims to break down hierarchical barriers and build stronger, more compassionate classroom environments. They also carve out spaces for teachers from various schools to connect, discuss shared challenges, offer resources and support to each other. It empowers participants to express themselves freely, build resilience, and cultivate meaningful connections that enhance both learning and teaching experiences.
Anonym(us)
Is a safe space for high school and university students to share their stories of vulnerability, connect to a supportive community, empathize with different experiences, and express themselves creatively.
Seeds of ideas solutions for the future
Here is a look at the other projects that were conceptualised during the ideathon. These projects have a lot of potential and could be further elaborated into bigger solutions for the future. If you’re interested in any of these ideas or would like to adapt them into your school context please contact us so we can connect you to the teams behind them. Unfortunately we were unable to fund all of the projects as much as we would have liked to.
Bustan
A hydroponic garden that students run within their local public school. The hope is to create a sustainable and self-sufficient space for students to build community with each other as well as with the local community in their neighborhood. The intention is also to create a space that is accessible to students with disabilities in their neighborhood since disabled folks are often segregated and bussed into schools outside their neighborhood.
The team’s project aims to address the lack of student access to their local community and resources.
Farasha
A monthly zine created by groups of young people across different schools to explore different topics, develop their research and critical thinking skills and open space for greater dialogue and debate in the educational environment and across society.
The team was looking to address a lack of spaces for people to learn and grow in community as well as students’ inexperience with project based learning
Suggestinator
A platform for students to interact directly with professors and administrators to give suggestions on the school curriculum, facilities and activities. The Suggestinator would not only gather students’ opinions on different topics in a safe and anonymous way, but also provide them with the opportunity to follow up and see how their input was incorporated. Ultimately, this would lead to the school environment becoming more responsive to students’ needs, and to improved communication between students, teachers and admins.
The team’s project aims to address the lack of student agency in the design and implementation of school curriculums.
Souty
Souty is a physical and digital space that allows students to discuss issues of mental health amongst each other through different activities, with the support of mental health experts. The aim is to normalize conversations around mental health in the school setting; provide a supportive environment for students and teachers to talk about these issues; create space for students to express themselves without judgment, and connect them to the right mental health resources.
The team was looking to address a lack of safe spaces for students to discuss and process their mental health as well as the lack of access to mental health resources.
Our data
Interested in learning more about how we could build youth agency, develop more responsive and participatory programs, or create more inclusive spaces? Check out our recommendations and toolkits for youth leaders, educators, administrators and anyone else willing to do the work!
68
Students who completed the training
22
Schools represented
88
Issues identified by students during PAR module
1,203
Number of people interviewed / surveyed through PAR projects
Tools and resources
Here you will find more details about how and why Aswatna came into existence, an analysis of the demographics of each cohort and the issues they identified, as well as lessons learned from our major stakeholders—the en.v team, trainers, and of course the participants. We close with recommendations for schools, students, organizers, and other stakeholders who may want to adopt Aswatna into their own spaces.