AI for Good: Improving Global Educational Journeys

Despite decades of progress, 251 million youth remain out of school globally. One leading cause is underinvestment in education, especially in low-income countries.

Technological advancements, however, have unlocked new possibilities for supporting global education. AI specifically improves access to education for all, especially in regions of poverty, where education contributes to local economic growth.

Chorkor, Ghana, is a region of abject poverty that lacks the nonprofit presence needed to improve its communities’ overall well-being. BASICS International, a nonprofit organization that provides education, food, and healthcare for children in Chorkor and surrounding impoverished communities, has been contributing to educational initiatives and has seen measurable success with the help of AI technologies.

The need: the power of AI

Headquartered in Queens, New York, with an office in Chorkor, BASICS manages over 1,000 volunteers between the two countries to end cycles of poverty, illiteracy, hunger, and child labor in Africa. BASICS’ initiatives focus on helping the entire community rise out of poverty, allocating funding to subsidize tuition so children can be in school, and not working to support the household.

As BASICS grew as an organization and more children enrolled in school because of their work, they realized they needed help advancing and scaling their processes. At AWS re:Invent 2023, they had the opportunity to showcase their work, where they met Vasion.

Following the conference, Vasion created AI-driven software that meets BASICS’s unique challenges, needs, and long-term goals. The solution has successfully bridged its digital divide while drastically improving efficiency, ultimately helping advance and scale the organization.

The challenge: outdated, insufficient processes

Since its founding in 2000, BASICS relied on paper-based processes inside the organization, and these manual processes have resulted in errors and inefficiencies. Everything from going out into the community, onboarding students, and tracking information on the child relied on hours spent on paperwork often misplaced, ultimately impacting a child’s chance at the education needed for a better quality of life.

Moreover, BASICS lacked fundamental technology at its offices and the surrounding area of Chorkor, leading to significant communication challenges. The Chorkor office and headquarters often couldn’t even communicate about time-sensitive matters.

BASICS generates most of its revenue by sharing personal stories from its students with sponsors. Students exchange letters, photos, report cards, and other achievements with their sponsors. All correspondence was initially handwritten and sent through the postal service, which often delays responses and takes months.

These paper processes also proved the organization’s lack of ability to share updates on a child’s progress and its sponsor. Staff put an overwhelming amount of work into keeping information flowing, and in many cases, it took an average of one year for a child and sponsor to communicate. Ultimately, delayed communications impacted donations and, oftentimes, a lack of interest from a sponsor. Because of the lack of quick communications, BASICS had to restructure, moving from individual donors to getting revenue from corporate sponsorships.

In addition to delayed communication, registering students was a timely undertaking. Volunteers entered the communities with only paper and a clipboard to collect information from multiple families. The organization also encountered challenges with misplaced physical documents, which required duplicate work or resulted in a lost opportunity for a student.

The solution: AI specific to their needs

The first step in addressing BASICS’ challenges was identifying their shortcomings and goals, which was followed by creating software specific to their needs. Digitizing processes with AI to augment the organization’s power and reduce human effort was also necessary.

When processes move to paperless, workloads and workflows need to be managed. Implementing AWS in Vasion’s automation platform helped improve AI capabilities and mitigate the workflows for staff. AWS technologies helped mitigate 90% of workflows using AI to clean up and catch inefficiencies.

The solution works by providing workflows like a check system. With each workflow, the BASICS team completes each step before proceeding to the next. This design helps ensure all tasks are routed correctly for a seamless system and experience – no paper required.

The results: seamless operations for seamless educational journeys

With all documents and processes digitized, 10 BASICS employees have become as productive as 30 employees.

BASICS team staff and volunteers can now go into the community with a tablet to collect student information, and all data is readily available for staff to access across their offices. Because AI helps simplify the process, trained social workers are no longer required to register, allowing more staff and volunteers to step in and expand reach across the community and surrounding areas.

The elimination of the paper-based process has also reduced student onboarding from a minimum of five days to two hours or less. The funds tied to these activities have enabled BASICS to reallocate funds to other more valuable expenditures like food.

Most importantly, communication time between students and sponsors has dramatically improved. At the beginning of the school year, the sponsor receives their digital sponsorship card, summarizing the student and where they can access everything from progress reports, achievements, photos, and where to send and receive letters.

Thanks to AI, the sponsor receives regular updates during the academic term, ensuring consistent communication without added burden. What used to take hours for a child to share updates can now be done in seconds. At the same time, the sponsor gets more visibility into the power of their connection and how their help is changing students’ lives.

Finally, everything is more secure. For example, files containing sensitive student information, photos, and letters are now stored in the cloud and protected with access controls and audit trails, replacing those previously stored in filing cabinets and prone to going missing.

AI’s promise: improving education for the greater good

The power of digital transformation cannot be overlooked when you realize its potential to inspire dreams and enhance entire communities – especially those underprivileged. AI plays a crucial role in fostering more inclusive experiences and driving progress, and as applications mature, we’ll continue to see education become more attainable for everyone.

The AI integration as part of this project has allowed Vasion to build them into the foundation of their automation solution. Vasion can now provide these services to other nonprofit organizations facing similar organizational and communication challenges by powering processes like forms, workflows, and reporting.

As just one example of how AI enables positive change, making processes so simple that anyone at any age and any education level can engage and access a digital experience will dramatically change how we approach inclusivity around the world.