The truth is that a highly qualified teacher in a positive school culture can support students to leapfrog grade levels and provide relational and social support. These teachers are invaluable and must be invested in, so that they will continue to grow and will themselves invest in thousands of children throughout their careers.
buildOn is a nonprofit with a mission to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education by building schools in seven of the economically poorest countries in the world. Schools are constructed in true partnership with local communities and in villages that historically haven’t had an adequate school structure. Community members pledge to send girls to the new school in equal numbers to boys, and local men and women are given equal leadership opportunities in project management and construction. buildOn has altered the lives of hundreds of people, including children like Elizabeth.
Learning the sciences enhances a student’s success and has a powerful impact in particular on girls. Africa Schoolhouse recently raised funds to assist communities in Tanzania to add three new science laboratories and sanitary composting latrines in secondary schools.
Bidil Abdulahi has experienced joy and heartbreak in his attempt to send his children to school.
Every day, Bidil Abdulahi would farewell his oldest son, sent off on a one hour walk to the nearest school. “It was a long walk for a child,” he says, “but I didn’t want my child to be as illiterate as I am.”
The decision paid off, with his son Yunus now in college.
Bidil’s daughter was not as fortunate.
A few months ago I met a grandmother.
That’s not so remarkable, until I tell you that she is only 25.
No matter how you calculate the math and circumstances that result in a young lady becoming a grandmother at age 25, it is horrific. There is no instant panacea that will make instances like this history. In this particular case, I can point to a long civil war, with its attendant atrocities, as well as child marriage, poverty, and other factors as contributory, but I really started the story this way to make the point that in our drive for accurate statistics with which to make decisions, we must never lose sight of the fact that those statistics point to real people, with real stories, and with very real barriers to overcome.
My father-in-law squinted. “Why on earth would you want to do that?” he said when I told him I was going to a remote part of Zambia to produce a virtual reality experience for Impact Network, the NGO I work for in New York.
Impact Network runs education programs in rural, off-the-grid communities in Africa. I explained that virtual reality, or VR, would allow us to tell our story in the most immersive way possible. Short of bringing people to Zambia, the experience would transport them to a rural village where they could explore the sights and sounds of a new environment. This would help people to better understand the context and purpose of Impact Network’s work and maybe even want to visit themselves.
At Rise Up, we enable girls to stand up, raise their voices, and advocate for their rights. We have built a global network of over 400 leaders who have advocated for laws and policies impacting 115 million girls, youth, and women. One of these inspiring leaders is Achie Gezahegne of Ethiopia. In the blog below, Achie talks about how she raises her voice for Ethiopian girls and shares her vision for a future where girls are at the center of development.
There have been countless of studies about the importance of youth employment and entrepreneurship programs to educate and provide opportunity to youth in communities that really need it. There has also been studies that shows the importance of girls education and their involvement in such youth employment and entrepreneurship programs.
A familiar sight: a teacher stands at the head of the classroom with a book or a sheet of paper in hand. Her eyes travel down the page as she reads out loud, pausing every so often to allow the dozens of furiously writing students to catch up. The students will take their notes home for the night. They will study, review, and rehearse until they have memorized word for word the information. And the next morning, one by one, they will stand in front of the teacher and give an oral recitation. The teacher will ask questions. She will write down a final grade. And then she will move on to the next lesson.
Over the last twelve months, WAC-DC has engaged in a twist on educational exchange. Instead of a one-time, single experience, we wanted to see what happened when teachers, their students, and their schools embarked on a year-long, fully immersive duel collaboration where they truly traded spaces.
