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01 / 05Build With AIWatching it work

Bridging the digital and AI divide

ByteByByte is a youth-led organisation. Our volunteers teach students to build with AI, and teach adults to use the internet safely and spot a cheat before they lose money.

  • Backed by
  • With the Cyber Branch, Pune Police
  • 9 chapters in 3 countries
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Who we are

9 chapters · 3 countries · 120 volunteers

Our storyMeet the team

Who we work with

Backed by Microsoft. Working with the police.

ByteByByte volunteers with police officers outside the branch office, its signboard above the door.
Reeti Maniar of ByteByByte with a police officer at the branch, the police emblem on the wall behind them.

ByteShield partner

Cyber Branch, Pune Police

ByteShield runs with the Cyber Branch. They bring real cases from their own files, and those cases become what people practise on.

How ByteShield works

Backed by Microsoft

Microsoft backs ByteByByte with devices and the education resources our Microsoft × ByteByByte curriculum is built on.

Microsoft × ByteByByte

Community partner in Pune: Sneh Foundation.

We also teach with

  • NGOs
  • Housing societies
  • Old age homes
  • Community centres
  • Underprivileged schools

So far

students taught
800+
teaching sessions
90+
volunteers
120
chapters in India, Egypt and Chile
9
raised for the work
₹1 lakh+

Got a suspicious message?How ByteShield helps1930

The problem

  1. Picture 100 young Indians.

    Phones in nearly every pocket.

  2. 84 of them can get online.

    That part worked.

  3. Only 28 can actually use it.

    Find what they need. Send an email. Pay someone without being robbed.

  4. Among young women, 21.

    The same phones. Fewer people ever shown how.

  5. Among rural young women, 14.

    The same phone, the same signal. Far fewer people ever shown what to do with it.

  6. We teach the other 56.

    The ones who are online and were never taught what to do there. That gap is what we work on.

Source: NSO Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey, NSS 79th round, released October 2024

What we teach

Three programmes, from age 10 to over 60.

Every session ends with the learner holding something they made or did, on a real device, before they leave.

    • Ages 14 to 17
    • 6 weeks · 2.5 hours a week

    Build With AI

    Every student picks a real problem from their own life, builds something with AI that helps, and presents it to their family on demo day.

    • Microsoft Copilot, checked and never just trusted
    • A demo day for family and community
    • 25 to 30 students per cohort
    See the programme
    • Classes 5 to 10, and college
    • 3 levels · 6 to 10 weeks

    ByteByByte

    A curriculum built on Microsoft's education resources. Children build their first game, teenagers run a school AI club, college students earn a credential in a career path.

    • Code.org, Minecraft Education, MakeCode
    • SOAR, UNICEF Passport to Earning, Microsoft Learn
    • Taught in person, in pairs
    See the programme
    • People over 60, and their families
    • 2 hours · with Pune Police

    ByteShield

    They already use WhatsApp every day. Nobody showed them the tricks cheats use. In two hours we do, and then everyone practises hanging up.

    • Four warning signs: hurry, fear, secret, pay now
    • The money rule that ends most cheats
    • Real cases from the Cyber Branch, Pune Police
    See the programme

The story so far

From one conversation at home to 9 chapters.

  1. Volunteers at a whiteboard with children, handprints painted across the wall.

    2025

    It started at home.

    Our house help needed to pay someone who only took money online. She had a phone. She didn't know how to use it the way the world now works. Reeti went looking for how common that was, and found it was most people.

  2. Children and a volunteer gather round a laptop, one making a peace sign at the camera.

    2025

    The first sessions.

    Volunteers started teaching children in community centres, sitting on the floor around shared laptops.

  3. November 2025

    ByteFest.

    Our first fundraiser. Stalls, games and the whole community in one place in Pune. ₹70,000+ raised in one night.

  4. A full classroom facing a screen at the front, shot from the back of the room.

    2026

    9 chapters.

    Pune, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Then Egypt and Chile. Each one run by young people where they live.

  5. Hands on a laptop keyboard with Scratch on screen while other children watch from a patterned mat.

    2026

    Backed by Microsoft.

    Microsoft backs ByteByByte with devices for our partner NGOs. Our school curriculum is built on Microsoft's education resources.

  6. ByteByByte volunteers with police officers outside the branch office, its signboard above the door.

    October 2026

    Official with Pune Police.

    ByteShield now runs with the Cyber Branch, Pune Police. They bring real cases from their own files.

  7. December 2026

    Next: Byteathon.

    A school hackathon and evening fest. Workshops and building from 1pm, then a fest at night. Date and host school being confirmed.

Where we work

9 chapters. Yours could be next.

A chapter belongs to a school, a college or a neighbourhood, not to a city. One city can hold several, so a chapter in Mumbai does not mean Mumbai is taken.

Start a chapter
  • Overhead view of two volunteers on a patterned mat with about ten children, laptops open, a painted hot-air balloon on the wall.

    A Build With AI session

  • A girl in a red top concentrates on a laptop screen.

    Concentration

  • Adults seated in a room as two presenters run a ByteShield session with a projector.

    ByteShield session

  • Students in orange uniforms in a classroom while a volunteer presents at the front.

    School session

  • A girl smiles while working at a laptop beside a volunteer.

    Community centre session

  • ByteByByte volunteers with police officers outside the branch office, its signboard above the door.

    With the police, Pune

  • Volunteers at a whiteboard with children, handprints painted across the wall.

    Community centre session

  • A group of children and volunteers smiling at the camera.

    After a session

  • A volunteer leans over a boy at a laptop running Scratch, seen from behind.

    First program in Scratch

  • Two boys lean in over a laptop, chins in hands.

    Watching it work

  • A room of seated adults at a ByteShield session, a volunteer presenting at the front.

    ByteShield session

  • A full classroom facing a screen at the front, shot from the back of the room.

    School session

  • Girls gather round a laptop with a volunteer.

    Community centre session

  • Children and volunteers smiling for the camera in a community centre room.

    Community centre session

Gallery

Partner with us

Bring ByteByByte to your people.

See every way to partner

Who runs it

A core team of six. 120 volunteers behind them.

  • Portrait of Reeti Maniar

    Reeti Maniar

    Founder

  • Portrait of Suhani Deswal

    Suhani Deswal

  • Portrait of Vivin Sharma

    Vivin Sharma

  • Portrait of Alaukik Dave

    Alaukik Dave

  • Portrait of Akshat Singh

    Akshat Singh

  • Portrait of Thanissha Karthikeyan

    Thanissha Karthikeyan

Meet the team

For schools, NGOs, housing societies and companies

Bring a session to your room.

Tell us who will be there. We plan the session around them.

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