Profile DigiKidz and Foresee Foundation
The Foresee Foundation is a non-profit organization with a large number of enthusiastic volunteers having a passion for Technology, Education and St. Maarten. The 4C-Foundation supports NGOs with innovative educational projects. For the last three years the focus has been mainly on technology.
In 2014 the first Foresee project ‘DigiKidz’ was started with the amazing investments by Windsong Foundation. Three primary schools, two Hillside Christian and Seventh Day Adventist, were equipped with a state of the art technology infrastructure and devices. Teachers were trained, ICT Tech teams were formed and lots of efforts were made in sharing innovative new learning approaches in regards to 21st century education.
Simultaneously the construction of the DIgiKidz Medialab at the Philipsburg Jubilee Library took place. Both projects have impacted over 4,000 children in the past three years bringing technology and innovative learning and teaching to our youngest generation.
Being aware of the needs, Foresee Foundation made the next step by expanding its projects to the secondary schools (Milton Peters and St Maarten Academy) acknowledging the importance of including this age group with more than 1,500 kids attending those two largest secondary institutions.
Also two years in a row the CTEC conference, an EdTech conference and EXPO for nearly 1,000 educators, was organized.
During the last year, a gaming organization under the name For the Win was established and adopted under the umbrella of Foresee. Those young St. Maarteners have a passionate vision on how gamification contributes to the business and education world and have done a number of amazing things in the last couple of months eager to share how gamification can positively contribute to further engagement in the community.
During the last 2 years, also a STEM/SCIENCE ‘Makers/Designers’ club with the name ‘DigiWorkz’ was established bringing an active and interactive example of how education integrates seamlessly with various cutting edge technologies such as; virtual reality, 3D printing, coding and much more to St. Maarten. These workshops and other activities are also taking place in our local public library.
SHTA was the first organization who showed interest and confidence in our organization and endorsed Foresee. This paved the way to over US$ 1.5 million in investments for the different projects. The majority of the funding came from Caribbean based Windsong International Foundation. Additionally a considerable amount was contributed by local UNESCO, the local business community, school boards, service clubs and parents.
Much credit goes to the school management, teachers and staff of the Philipsburg Jubilee as they were the ones at the forefront of this revolution in education by partnering with Foresee and implementing these large innovations. Compliments and congratulations also go out to all volunteers connected with Foresee. It needs to be noted that 98% of all funding and sponsoring goes directly to the projects, limiting overhead costs and relying on many people giving back to the community.
With many more plans in mind, Foresee hopes to continue its ambitious endeavors thanking all stakeholders and partners! It shows that the 4Cs of Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical thinking pay off doing great things together on St. Maarten.
