evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Digital Citizen Fund's Edy — Offline AI Learning App for Afghan Girls Banned from School

Afghanistan · Herat · See the Afghanistan profile · See the Herat profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 82% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since Afghanistan's 2021 ban on girls' secondary education, the Digital Citizen Fund has distributed a free offline app, Edy, featuring an AI character, Ruby, that teaches coding and financial literacy to Afghan girls learning in secret via encrypted channels and underground clas

~500 students
Students reached through Edy and related underground-classroom programmes (most recent reported year)
25,000+ students
Students reached by Digital Citizen Fund's wider portfolio since 2013
Digital Citizen Fund's Edy — Offline AI Learning App for Afghan Girls Banned from School

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Digital Citizen Fund
Period
2024–ongoing (beta)
Keywords
girls' education, offline AI, STEAM, human rights, out-of-school learning

Context

Since the Taliban's 2021 ban on girls' education beyond grade 6 in Afghanistan, the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) — founded in 2013 by Herat entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, also known for the Afghan Girls Robotics Team — has developed Edy, a free, offline learning app distributed through encrypted channels. Edy is designed to reach girls attending secret underground classrooms and features 'Ruby,' a conversational AI character that teaches coding and financial literacy alongside a broader STEAM curriculum combining robotics with art, storytelling and comics.

Activities

Edy runs without an internet connection to reduce the risk of detection for its users. The app remains in beta ahead of an official public launch.

Results

DCF reports reaching an estimated 500 students through Edy and related underground-classroom programmes in the most recent reported year, within a wider Digital Citizen Fund portfolio that has reached over 25,000 students since 2013.

Conclusions

No independent outcome evaluation of Edy exists and the reported reach figures are self-reported. The app's offline, encrypted distribution model — while necessary for safety — leaves no public documentation of data-protection or content-safety practices, making this an early-stage, high-risk-context response to an extraordinary access denial rather than a mature, evidenced model.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No budget figures disclosed; app distributed free of charge.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — App in beta since approximately 2024, ahead of an official public launch, responding to the 2021 ban on girls' secondary education.
Staffing & skills
Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), founded 2013 by Roya Mahboob (Herat, Afghanistan)

Conditions for success

  • Offline functionality to avoid needing internet access, reducing detection risk
  • Distribution through encrypted channels to reach girls in secret underground classrooms

Common failure modes

  • No independent outcome evaluation exists; reach figures are self-reported
  • No public documentation of data-protection or content-safety practices for an app whose users face serious personal risk if discovered

Where it fits

Governance type
nonprofit/NGO
Scale
local/underground network within Afghanistan
Income level
low-income (Afghanistan)

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful