Our work
Dost means "friend" in Hindi. We are a friendly voice of reason to help parents of any literacy level boost their child’s early learning and development at home. Through 1-minute podcasts delivered via phone calls four times a week (“phonecasts”), Dost solves everyday parent problems and nudges parents to turn regular moments into learning moments. Current content is for parents with kids aged 0-6 and covers cognitive development, socio-emotional skills, and school preparedness.
The problem
Low-income parents are motivated to give their children the best education but struggle to do so, particularly during the early years. Their children enter primary school behind and never have a chance to catch up. The scale of the problem is enormous, especially in India, where there are 150 million illiterate women, and by 5th grade, only half of the children can read at a 2nd-grade level.
How we are solving this problem
From neuroscientists and economists, experts agree on a high ROI method to address this cycle of illiteracy: promote early learning experiences at home. Accomplishing this task requires innovation: the millions of kids who need better early learning experiences live in low-income, low literacy homes.
Users
Our users are typically mothers who have attained a high school education or less and have household earnings of $1-10 a day.
Our COVID-19 response in 2020
After speaking with 200+, we knew low-income families were worried and anxious about their income, health, and abuse within the family. The increased levels of stress were affecting not only parents but also young children. (It is estimated that more than 300 million learners in India are out of "school” because of the pandemic)
Families need to have methods to deal with the stress, resources to reach out to and ways to take care of their children, so there is no lasting negative effect of the crisis on themselves and the younger generation. Researchers from Harvard also highlight the importance of addressing stress and building resilience in families as a crucial component of fighting the pandemic.
Additional to our early learning content, we created the following resource to help families build resilience and create a safe environment at home: A 6-week-long COVID module addressing stress, physical and mental health for both adults and young children, and recommending positive behaviour management techniques to adopt health routines at home.
Reach
Since our beta launch in 2017 with 300 users, we have grown to 75,000+ users through a network of Dost Champions and strategic partnerships.
Dost in 2021
We have partnered with UNICEF India to co-design and scale our program across 3 States in India. We are also directly collaborating with one State government to pilot our program in two districts. In 2021, we aim to reach 50,000 families with our early learning content
Additionally, we are working with researchers to refine our model for deeper impact.
Funders
YCombinator, The LEGO Group, Mulago Foundation, Chintu Gudiya Foundation, Gina Sanders/Gina's Collective, Fast Forward
Founders
Sneha Sheth (Founder, CEO) - Sneha started Dost while completing her MBA at UC Berkeley. She has experience designing programs for women’s empowerment, financial inclusion and education across the world, including Mumbai, Cairo and Nairobi. In previous roles at Dalberg and Oliver Wyman, she advised clients like Goldman Sachs, the Gates Foundation, Teach For India, and UN Women. She’s currently a Mulago Rainer Arnhold Fellow and Gratitude Network Awardee.
Sindhuja Jeyabal (Co-founder, CTO)- Sindhuja has expertise in data mining, web-service design, and mobile application development. Sindhuja received a Master in Information Management and Systems from UC Berkeley, where she specialized in technology for international development and began building Dost. She has also built and won awards for developing tools for privacy and social finance. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from BITS Pilani (India).
