In Dubai, learning English will help its many labourers get better jobs and salaries. But with average monthly salaries of $220, and a hard life of 12-hour work shifts, they neither have the money nor time to educate themselves.

SmartLife, an NGO for Dubai's labourers, helped them improve their status and quality of life.

Through Project Akshar (Alphabets), we graduated over 5,000 of Dubai's labourers from blue collar to white collar for $0.

We first launched free English classes. And to encourage labourers to register, we showed them how easy it was to learn English.

Using effective visual learning techniques, we took words that are useful to them, wrote their English phonetic pronunciations in the Hindi script, and combined them with their visual representation, to create words that teach them English through their own language.

We placed hundreds of words like these, across their daily journey, turning Dubai into a blackboard for them. Labour camps became 'educational' camps. Transport buses became 'school' buses. Construction sites became 'learning' sites. Mundane routines became 'inspiring' journeys.

We shared a number they could give a miss call on. We called them back to enroll them.

We extended their learning across channels by creating:

-Learning flashcards

-An interactive karaoke song

-Print ads in vernacular media

-Bus shelter ads around labour camps, which caught media's attention.

And a social app triggered worldwide contributions of new words for the project.

The labourers' stories of success generated regional and worldwide PR for SmartLife and positive WOM for Dubai.

SmartLife, an NGO for Dubai's labourers, wanted to help them improve their status and quality of life.

And while at it, create more awareness for their cause, driving more support and integration for them into the white-collared workforce.

Also, being affiliated with the Community Development Authority in Dubai, and the Dubai Government, SmartLife needed to garner support and endorsement from the official bodies, without creating any controversy and without showing Dubai in a bad light when it came to labourers. We needed to show the government, the authorities with SmartLife helping alleviate the labourers' lives in a meaningful, sustainable manner.

The project is transforming their lives of labour into lives of learning:

(1) 5000+ students graduated in 12 months.

(2) 28% cleared interviews for white-collar jobs.

(3) 12% launched businesses back home.

(4) 23% got promoted to white-collar jobs from existing blue-collar jobs in their firms.

(5) 37% got 100% (or more) increase in salaries.

(6) The project is invited to be a part of the Dubai Government’s ‘Happy Dubai’ initiative.

(7) All costs: Pro bono ($0) courtesy SmartLife's partners.

(8) SmartLife generated unprecedented regional plus international earned media worth $430,000 across TV, Press, Radio and Social Media.

(9) Endorsed by Timeout, Dubai One, The National, Gulf News, XPRESS, Expatwoman.com, Dubai Municipality, Emirates 24/7, GEMS Winchester School, City 7, Dubai Media Inc, Manorama News, Manoramaonline.com, Khaleej Times, Gulf Madhyamam, Contagious, Best ads, Euro News, Act Responsible, Ad Forum, Ebola Industries, Digital Synopsis, Creative Criminals, Little Black Book, Communicate and others.

We placed hundreds of words like these, designed to look like school notepads, across their daily journey, turning Dubai into a blackboard for them.

Labour camps became 'Educational' camps.

Transport buses became 'School' buses.

Construction sites became 'Learning' sites.

Mundane routines became 'Inspiring' journeys.

We extended their learning across channels by creating:

Learning flashcards, an Interactive karaoke song, Print ads in vernacular media, Bus shelter ads around labour camps.

In the spirit of free English classes, we shared a number with our words that they could give a missed call on and SmartLife called them back to enroll them.

To generate awareness and support for the project, we created a social media app on Facebook, inviting Hindi-speaking people and typography fans to get creative and contribute their words to the cause.

A special edition designer book with the words was sold in bookstores to raise funds for the project.

Dubai is infamous for the conditions its blue-collar labourers live in.

People ask: “You live in Dubai? So, what about the labourers? How can you justify living there with those labourers who are practically slaves?”

Few initiatives have gone beyond providing fleetingly better living conditions for the labourers.

Our research with them showed that learning English is one thing that'll help open up career prospects for them, enabling them to get better jobs and salaries.

But with average monthly salaries of $220, and a hard life of 12-hour work shifts, they neither have the money nor time to educate themselves.

We discovered one aspect that’s often overlooked: The labourers’ aspirations for their personal and professional future and progress. It is a well-known truth that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But, if you teach that man to fish, you will feed him for a lifetime.

The gift of education would be the best “donation” and the best form of “charity".

We created Project Akshar (Alphabets), where we set out to graduate Dubai's labourers from blue collar to white collar.

We first launched free English classes.

And to encourage labourers to register and enroll, we showed them how easy it is to learn English.

Using effective visual learning techniques, we took words that are useful to them, wrote their English phonetic pronunciations in the Hindi script, and combined them with their visual representation, to create words that teach them English through their own language.