What is Martha EDU?
Martha Education is a social enterprise interested with the innovation and development of educational tools for people with hearing disabilities, Martha’s product is the result of continuous research and learning on the best educational methodologies in Arabic-Jordanian sign language, which are multiple educational products supported with Arabic and English also an interactive application that displays a lot of visuals and videos with cartoon characters that are children-friendly and in collaboration with talented children who are talented in sign language.
Our Values
Digital Safety
Equality
Transparency
Cultural Sensitivity
Practical empathy
Digital Safety
We believe that the digital safety of the children and their families is at the heart of our work. Our products provide a safe, meaningful and engaging child-family learning experience. The content and functionality have been prepared and tested by both users and top experts in the field, who ensures that children are protected from harmful or abusive content. In addition, the product will offer age-appropriate privacy settings in line with European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children and recommendations of UNICEF’s Guidelines for Industry on Online Child Protection.
Equality
Our product is an easy, accessible and affordable technology that reduces inequalities by offering it with minimum cost or free for charge for those who can’t afford it. It provides the educational experience regardless of age, gender, the income of families or social backgrounds. The equal access of the product means that D/deaf children will receive the same educational experiences as those who are non-D/deaf children. The product also promotes high-quality education through inclusive learning experience for all children and families in multiple languages (sign, English and Arabic) using new technologies and high-quality visual content.
Transparency
As you may have noticed from your readings about Martha EDU on our website, we share our approach, partners, processes and objectives with you openly. We welcome your questions and thoughts through the many feedback and communication forms we have on our website, and we are glad to develop new ways of staying in touch with you.
Cultural Sensitivity
Culture evolves, grows and changes, and so do we. We hope to be partners in the journeys of people from diverse backgrounds, and to achieve that successfully, we do our best to accommodate what they value the most, the way they see the world, and what they prioritize. Furthermore, diversity is in our very DNA as a social enterprise ran by Syrians, Jordanians, with contributions from many more who add distinct value to our contribution to the world.
Practical empathy
We are driven by the stories of the people, by the pain and hope they share with us. We make sure that we transfer these human experiences to solutions with meaning and sustainability to act upon what we learn from you.
Clarify a problem
Most people identifying with a hearing disability and being d/Deaf have challenges that begin in early childhood. With 80% born to hearing parents, the majority or the d/Deaf community grows unable to have a common language with others, and lack literacy skills in sign language.
In the developing world, even more children suffer from the impacts of armed conflicts, poverty, and short-sighted policies; making it a challenge to access medical and educational aid and build meaningful relations and hopeful lives.
Our solutions
At Martha EDU, we work on eradicating the barriers to literacy among the d/Deaf from childhood, using interactive flashcards and mobile App technologies.
We aspire to reach every home with our products; with the main one currently consisting of flashcards supported by QR codes that our free mobile app can read and bring out Jordanian Arabic sign language tutorials for children, by children.
Using a multi-level structure, we also gradually add English and Arabic words to the vocabulary and imagination of children and their families. Moreover, given the nature of our solutions, we are able to scale them and localize them to a wide range of contexts and cultures.
of people with hearing disabilities are illiterate.
of deaf children are born to hearing parents with a little or no experience dealing with deaf people.
Why Martha EDU?
What distinguishes Martha EDU is that it is:
Easy, user-friendly, and engaging.
Uses Jordanian Arabic Sign Language, complemented by Arabic and English.
A form of home-Based Learning
Affordable at an estimated cost of US$40, and is based on human-centered design through thorough collaboration with community members, professionals and nonprofits.
Can fully function without the support of professionals
Has been supported and endorsed by leading civil society organizations such as the International Refugee Commission (IRC), Oxfam International, and the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation.
And most importantly, it gives d/Deaf children and those with hearing disabilities in Jordan and the region a real opportunity to challenge financial, socioeconomic and cultural barriers to better integration in society.
Downloads
Expert opinions
Explore more than fourteen cartoon characters
Adam
Salma
Hamza
Alayaa
Zaid
Nada
Jamila
Amir
Nour
Sultan
Shammah
Kareem
Zeina
