Soraya Fouladi is the Founder & CEO of Jara, on a mission to ensure the 816 Million children in high-poverty and low-connectivity communities globally can get access to a quality education, anywhere, anytime, through her invention, the Jara Unit, an off-grid charging e-learning device. Soraya has been awarded as Forbes 30 Under 30, Cisco Global Problem Solver, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus Fellow, United Nations Keynote Speaker, SOCAP Fellow, Skoll Delegate, Gratitude Network Fellow, One Young World Ambassador, and Deloitte SDG4 Scholar Awardee. Soraya came up with the idea for Jara as a teenager at the United Nations International School, went to university to study Electrical Engineering to learn how to build what is now the Jara Unit, became a teacher, then a business management consultant helping spin out 72 businesses/products/services from deep tech, and has been building Jara for the past 7 years with an inspiring global team.
Jara closes the global digital divide by building the e-learning solution, the Jara Unit, for children in high-poverty, low-electricity and low-internet communities globally. The Jara Unit, a learning tool for children and teaching tool for teachers, is a heavily research-backed solution Jara has co-created alongside under-served communities for years. It is a crank-powered and solar-powered off-grid charging education device that enables children to get access to e-learning and distance learning at all times. Together with LG, Intel, and with support from Cisco, Deloitte, Deepak Chopra, and more, they are on a mission to ensure the 800 Million children who had no access to education during the pandemic, especially girls, in under-resourced communities, refugee camps, and post-disaster zones can get equitable and continuous access to the education they need to break their cycles of poverty and make their dreams come true.