Why and What is MarHabTech? مرحب تك
“Marhaba” is the most popular greeting word, it means hello in Arabic. The response to the greeting “Marhaba” is “Marhabtain” (which means 2 Marhaba). Playing with the words, we tweak the name to give our organisation’s name MarHabTech.
MarHabTech champions connected learning for refugees and with refugees to build resilience and meaningful life. We do this through holistic education, technology, and skills development for the refugees through partnership to provide hybrid learning in the 21st century.
MarHabTech is set up to love refugees, provide education and skills development to the refugees. We also extend the education and skills training to Arabs university students, working adults who want personal development.
Why and What is
MarHabTech? مرحب تك
“Marhaba” is the most popular greeting word, it means hello in Arabic. The response to the greeting “Marhaba” is “Marhabtain” (which means 2 Marhaba). Playing with the words, we tweak the name to give our organisation’s name MarHabTech.
MarHabTech champions connected learning for refugees and with refugees to build resilience and meaningful life. We do this through holistic education, technology, and skills development for the refugees through partnership to provide hybrid learning in the 21st century.
MarHabTech is set up to love refugees, provide education and skills development to the refugees. We also extend the education and skills training to Arabs university students, working adults who want personal development.
How?
With close to 83 million refugees, we believe in collaboration & partnership with like-minded organisations doing ongoing good works of reaching and engaging with the displaced community.
MarHabTech recognises the importance of collaboration, the power of local expertise and context in achieving its mission. We work closely with local partners by harnessing their deep understanding of the local context, cultures, and challenges, and this collaborative approach allows MarHabTech to ensure that the programs are tailored to the specific needs of the communities it serves.
Who?
Our primary group of beneficiaries is the refugee community.
We believe they should be given opportunities to learn and acquire new skills and live a meaningful life through education and skills development. Over half of the world’s refugees are children; we work with partners and families to engage the children in a fun learning environment.
Our volunteers are mainly from Singapore and the Philippines. We recruit volunteers when needed, and all volunteers are to undergo a compulsory orientation to understand the work’s scope, culture and context. On our database record, we have an estimated number of 20 volunteers.
What?
We have 4 platforms prefixed with “co-”.
The word: “Co-” symbolises and align with our vision of collaborated efforts and partnership with like-minded individual, including refugees/asylum seekers and organisations.
Co-Learning
Co-llaborating
Co-mmunity
Co-innovate
Education:
Co-learning.
Education empowers the local community to be resilient, independent, and sustainable. Learning is enriched when we learn from one another. We give our learners a safe space to speak and practise English with our facilitators, whose first language is English.
Here are the programs that we have:
English Corner
This program started in 2020, and thus far, we have run 5 rounds of English Corner with an estimated number of 150 online learners. We partner with local NGOs to run this program together.
This is a 10-week, 1-hour-per-week online conversational English program.
The learners will be paired with our facilitators to practise speaking English on the given topic.
Pre-requisite:
Have a reasonable Wi-Fi connection.
Intermediate level, and able to speak functional English.
Able to use Zoom. (If unable to, don’t worry, check out these tutorials)
How to use Zoom (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8SpqJueUOU
Sing Your English program for children
Sing Your English teaches children to learn English through singing. The program inspires to develop children’s self-confidence by letting them sing and speak in English while having fun and without the pressure of passing tests. We would love to partner with individuals such as parents or an organisation to bring this program to their community, refugee camps or school. We have a train-the-trainers program to equip the local teachers. Currently, the program is in Kurdistan and Jordan.
LEAP (Learn English Advancement Program)
In this program, we hope to see a world where everyone has the confidence and skills to communicate in English, fostering understanding and collaboration across borders. 3 levels of advanced English programs, namely, A1, A2 and A3. Each level is 3 months, and it will take 9 months to complete the course.
The curriculum is carefully designed by a group of experienced facilitators, following the international English language standards. Through this program, we aim to empower individuals through English proficiency to unlock their full potential and connect to a world of opportunity.
Joyful English
Joyful English is an ongoing 1-to-1 online conversational English course targeting Arab learners who can speak functional English. The duration of the program is 10 weeks for each level. We have engaging international facilitators and personalised learning. As it is online, students and facilitators can learn anytime and anywhere!
Read-Along English classes.
Carefully curated by our Arab trainer, Mr Youssef, who understands the struggle of Arab learners to learn English. We have a team of 3 curriculum developers to develop the different levels of Read Along classes for Arab learners.
Videos are in Arabic and English. Topics covered are basic English, such as Subject Pronouns, Verb To Be, Contractions, Negations, asking questions, etc.
Pre-requisite:
Able to read some English words.
Arabic speakers.
Have good Wi-Fi.
Partnership:
Co-llaborating
Partner with like-minded organisations/individuals who want to provide remote working opportunities for the refugees/asylum seekers for the short term, i.e. 3 months, 6 months.
Additionally, we liaise with the refugees/asylum seekers to provide a GPA Learning method for foreigners who want to learn another language, such as Arabic or Kurdish. An opportunity for you to acquire a new language, make new friends, understand their cultures, and bless the refugees/asylum seekers too!
People:
Co-mmunity.
Facilitate a community where we journey and learn together—bringing mentorship and training the man and woman of influence. If there is a particular area you would like to be coached, do write to us.
Partnership with Like-minded organisations:
Co-innovate
A shared work of generating innovative, exceptional & locally relevant design by various stakeholders. (i.e. Indigitous). Through this, develop a Minimal Viable Prototype (MVP) and develop delivery innovation.
From an education perspective, MarHabTech partners with Goducate.