SOCIAL INNOVATION

As social-emotional learning (SEL) has been scientifically proven to have a significant impact on children’s well-being and academic performance, EM-IN is founded to deliver this important skill to all children across Vietnam. EM-IN creates educational games that can be played both at school and at home to help children learn social-emotional learning anywhere, anytime. Our products are strongly connected to creating a developmental pathway, supporting children from 3 to 18 to develop their social-emotional skills. We focus on two main channels: B2B2C and B2C. As for B2B2C, we (1) introduce our games through school systems to convince parents to purchase them for their children and (2) partner with retailers like bookstores to display our products. As for B2C, we sell directly to parents through our social media channels and offline events. To maximize the life cycle of our products, we provide discounts on new products for families that return their used products. All returned products are then distributed to shelters across the country. Also, EM-IN will develop a social-emotional learning curriculum to be implemented in the classroom to go hand-in-hand with our educational games. We believe that our involvement in the official educational system will help us achieve our goal – to provide SEL for all Vietnamese children.

Nowadays, Vietnamese children face many problems with pressure, stress, and anxiety. A study at Vi Thanh High School for the Gifted in Hau Giang province found that among 718 students participating, the rate of stress, anxiety, and depression disorders was: 52.1%; 63.8%; 42.1% (Tin, D., et al., 2021). This leads students to perform worse in their studies and be at high risk of psychological problems. This study has shown a severe problem not only in Hau Giang school but also in all schools nationwide. Similarly, according to a UNICEF report in 2019, 50% of Vietnamese adolescents are at high risk of psychological problems and more than 3 million adolescents attempted or committed suicide that year. Sadly, this fact was also noted in EM-IN’s survey in 2019. Of the 60 primary school children who participated in the survey, 52% of them were not aware of the importance of mental health and 47% of the children did not know how to control their anger. Besides, 49% do not know how to express their emotions, especially unpleasant emotions. And 63% of them don’t know how to show empathy toward others.

Proof:

(1) Community Change-Maker Scholarship

(2) Impact Showcase

(3) YSEALI Presentation