Hammed Kayode Alabi Honored as Mentor at 2025 Tanween Global Impact Challenge
Hammed Kayode Alabi Honored as Mentor at 2025 Tanween Global Impact Challenge
Hammed Kayode Alabi Honored as Mentor at 2025 Tanween Global Impact Challenge
Social entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and poet Hammed Kayode Alabi has added another milestone to his journey, being recognized by the Ithra Tanween team for his contribution as an expert and mentor at the 2025 Tanween Global Impact Challenge.
Over six intensive days, Hammed supported participants—remarkable innovators in their own right—as they tackled challenges in early childhood education (ages 3–7) in remote communities.
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Reflecting on the experience, Hammed said, “My greatest highlight was seeing some of the ideas come together. Being a small part of that process—pushing participants to understand the problems better and develop innovative solutions—was truly inspiring.”
He recounted how the moments that moved him most were not the pitches themselves, but witnessing participants step out of their comfort zones to build prototypes and collaborate across differences, often with people they had never met.
Some of the standout projects included:
- Project Cosmic – The winning team used natural resources like sand and clay to create learning tools, empowering caregivers in Comoros to teach pre-school children basic literacy and numeracy. The tools cost $0 to build, with play as the primary mode of delivery.
- Project Voyager – A detachable learning unit for floating slums in Malaysia, allowing stateless children to learn from home. The project also developed a toolkit for NGOs to implement the model.
- Project Curiosity Loop – Addressing educational challenges in Madagascar, this project created a circular sensory building where children can learn alphabets, farm using permaculture, and develop life and green skills, even amid malnutrition and limited playtime.
- Project Hotcscope – Designed a waterproof learning bag for children in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh, ensuring continuity of education from home and protection of learning materials.
- Project Robat – Modeled after Al Ahsa’s privatization practices, this initiative allows communities and teachers to own and build modular pre-school classrooms, fostering healthy competition and sustainability. A classroom can be built in just 65 days.
- Project Zad – Developed low-cost learning toys based on local games and children’s interests, promoting engagement and development.
Hammed reflected, “It was incredible to see participants wear their honor with pride, step into the shoes of those they were designing for, and transform imperfection into opportunity. Witnessing people create not just with their hands but with their hearts was a profound privilege.”
He extended gratitude to Maram Alnowaseir, Amjad, and the Tanween team, as well as knowledge partners and fellow mentors, Dr. Manal, Mr. Abdulrahman, and Juwana, for their support and inspiration.
Hammed concluded with a message of purpose:
“To designing for those in the margins. To designing for the 90%. To designing for change!”
Hammed Kayode Alabi Honored as Mentor at 2025 Tanween Global Impact Challenge
